


Home

by TirNanOg89



Series: Past Is Prologue [12]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Multi, Not for Weir fans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:55:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3837850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TirNanOg89/pseuds/TirNanOg89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How would things change if John was a Lycan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

Home

Sumner didn’t like John, he went out of his way to remind him of it too, and it hit John right to the core every time. John needed approval, he always had, he also fought really hard to make sure nobody ever found out again. Nancy had figured him out, worked out how to get the unattainable John Sheppard to her self, even made him sleep with her, but even she couldn’t make his body respond to a female. She had eventually left him when she realised even marriage would never make it work. The whole debacle had only reinforced that nobody could ever again realise just how easy it was to 'make' him obey. He had enjoyed Antarctica, it was beautiful and peaceful, so giving it up to join the Atlantis expedition was difficult, Elizabeth he could ignore, but O'Neill had that Alpha vibe that he couldn’t dismiss, so he went, knowing Sumner would be hell but at least he would never be given any kind of responsibility by the man, in trying to 'keep him in his place' Sumner would be protecting him, which worked for John's sense of humour too. Then the bastard had to up and die.

Finally returning to Atlantis was a mixed bag for John, so he just shut it all down, despite Elisabeth's efforts, yes he was glad they had saved so many people and he was glad to be back in the welcoming arms of the city, but Sumner, the one man that would have saved him from becoming military leader, was lost to him, and he was damned to lead these men and women. John had always fought against promotion, he acted out and ignored orders when he needed to, but not because he thought he knew or could do better, except that one time, but because he had to do everything he could to avoid exactly where he was right now, having to lead a group of men and women in battle conditions. It wasn’t like he didn’t think he could do the job, he 'knew' he couldn’t 'survive' the job! It was why he had loved the Antarctic post so much, there were few people, and even less that wanted to get to know him, he hadn't had to keep up the 'friendly' façade like he normally did, it was such a nice break. He had to keep his distance from people or they would find him out, learn his secrets, and he knew his career wouldn’t survive that, even if he did, which was unlikely. So he kept his distance, kept his self safe and isolated, which just killed his soul slowly instead of getting him dead. Only now he was stuck here, in charge of the safety of every man woman and child on Atlantis, promoted to Alpha of a pack not his own, having to integrate Teyla's pack, and wasn’t it a kicker finding a true human Alpha and being put in charge of her, at the same time as trying to take charge of a grieving pack that only barely recognised his authority. Oh the joy.

Despite his reluctance, despite the fact that he knew it was going to get him locked up, or killed if he was lucky, John took over the military, because there was no other choice, constantly butting heads with Bates for so many reasons, not the least of which being they both blamed him for Sumner's death, unfair as that was, trying to resist the urge to roll over for Teyla, and trying to hold McKay at arms length while the man was determined to worm his way over, under or through his every barrier. The first few weeks were a constant nightmare for John, every time they were in physical danger he had to fight the almost unbeatable urge to shift to protect the others better, but he held off, he protected them all and kept his self human through it all, even having an oversized bug attached to his neck. Then he screwed up. He was still hurting, his neck was an aching mess and he was so tired, he just needed to stretch, just for a while, and he thought he was safe once he had escaped the infirmary and holed up in his quarters, Elizabeth had even told him he wouldn’t be disturbed for at least two days, Carson's orders. Only he didn’t factor in Rodney. 

The real problem was, that Rodney felt 'safe', Goddess only knew why, but he did, so when he heard him outside his door he didn’t think, he just let his self dose off again, which he really shouldn’t have done. Rodney came barrelling through his door not moments later, talking ninety miles an hour and shocking the hell out of him, making him jump up on all fours and growl threateningly, hackles raised, for the moment it took to recognise his friend. Rodney stopped dead when his brain caught up with his eyes and ears, just staring at the huge white wolf on Johns bed. His brain took a moment to reboot after the shock and he realised that though it was huge and vaguely threatening he wasn’t scared, this thing was in Johns room and despite the mutual shock, hadn't attacked him. He kept staring at the wolf and slowly realised its eyes were way too intelligent for an animal, there was something familiar about them too, that particular shade of hazel, then he blinked and John was kneeling on the bed staring back at him.

"Uh…"

Rodney frowned then raised his eyebrows in that derogatory way he was so good at.

"Well, that explains so much Major! I'm so glad you felt you could share that heartfelt and educational thought with me. Really, it raises my admiration for the US schooling system and their armed forces so much!"  
"Rodney."  
"Oh no, please save your voice for another really important utterance, maybe I can catch the next one on tape for posterity."  
"McKay! I'm sorry! I don’t tell anyone! I never have, ok? Nobody knows, I didn’t know 'how' to tell you."  
"Well. I suppose if nobody else knows."

Rodney's shoulders slumped and he relaxed as much as John had ever seen him relax. John tilted his head and ducked down, looking up at Rodney through his eyelashes, offering his throat. Rodney didn’t notice. John was a little disappointed, but he wasn’t surprised, Rodney was loud and opinionated but he was not Alpha, not even for a human, like Teyla was, so John let it slide and just listened to him rant about impossibilities and conservation of mass and being way too laid back for an animal. Which was when John snarled at him.

"I am NOT an ANIMAL! I am a Lycan! Like my mother and her family before her. Do not mistake my shape with my mind."

Rodney looked stunned for a moment, then sheepish and a little guilty before settling for belligerent. 

"No need to get snotty Major. I was just stating the facts as they were presented to me, I can't be held responsible for a lack of given facts!"  
"No, but you know better than to jump to conclusions on insufficient data, and you know better than judging by appearances. You don’t do it with tech, try applying the same principles to people, you'll be surprised how far it gets you."

Rodney looked at him for a while and John wished he knew what was going on in his head. 

"So, I've been told I'm really bad at this, but nobody ever bothered to explain how I should do it, so, you're not really as straight as your job would suggest are you? Cause I think we could be great friends but I think we'd be even better lovers, but I didn’t want to get hit for asking you, only now you can't really get shitty with me, what with the wolf thing, so I figure this is the best time to ask and…"  
"Rodney! I can't answer if you don’t take a breath! No, I'm far from straight, I tried the women thing because it was expected, got married, she divorced me when I couldn’t 'perform', which suited me to be fair, but no, nothing about women interests me in the slightest, and yeah, I think we will be great friends, and better lovers, if you're sure you want me?"  
"Duh! You know you're the hottest person in Atlantis right?"

John looked gob smacked for a while before going bright red and ducking his head, doing his best to melt into the bed. Rodney smirked at him.

"You really don’t see it, do you? My god! You are terminally oblivious, there is no cure! Though that works in my favour so it's not like I mind or anything. But before I get distracted by that, Lycan, that's what you said, why not werewolf?"  
"Don’t insult me Rodney, werewolves are mindless beasts, some poor bastard gets bit, infected and turns every month, no mind, just base instinct and fury, they're animals in the worst way."  
"So why aren't you?"  
"I was born a Lycan, I don’t have a disease, I always have and always will be able to change my shape whenever I want, I'm not ruled by the moon, I just am."  
"So you can change at any point, what about clothes?"

John laughed at the question and the look on Rodney's face.

"I take them off first, hence the naked now."  
"I didn’t think you'd noticed that."  
"I noticed, I just don’t care, even if I had cared, basic training would have cured it long ago. I spent most of my early childhood naked, whenever dad wasn’t around we would shift, Mom would take us to her folks as often as she could, we could run around the forest there, we were the only pups at the time but some of the adults would play with us. After Mom died Dave blamed her because she was a Lycan, she was poisoned with silver, they said it was accidental, just a weak heart mixed with heavy metal poisoning, but she was killed by a hunter. They mistake us for werewolves and just kill us off, they don’t care. So Dave decided he wasn’t going to be a Lycan any more and dad didn’t know what we were so I was alone. Mom always told us never to tell anyone, because of hunters, so we didn’t, I've never told anyone any of this before."  
"You don’t really talk a lot, I've never heard you say that much in one go before, and I never knew you had a brother. I'm sorry about your mum, my parents were both distant at best and confused most of the time, they never figured out how they managed to produce me and Jeannie, she had a brilliant mind but decided to waste it on some English major and kids! So what else are you hiding from me?"  
"Well…"  
"Oh my god, I was kidding! What is it? What else are you hiding?"

John couldn’t help but smile as Rodney flapped around.

"Atlantis speaks to me."

Rodney just stared at him for a long while, and the frown on his face told John he was trying to decide if he was joking or not, so he helped him out.

"I'm not joking, I'm really not. She's an AI, she hums in the back of my mind, and I can feel her watching me all the time. I can feel her on other planets as long as the Gate is open, and she got upset when I was hurt, and she likes you, that's why she lets you play with her systems but goes wrong for others, especially if you’ve told them not to touch, then she really lays in to them, its fun to watch, then I get to watch you rant at them too, so I get all the fun and all I have to do is not tell anyone. Except you, cause she likes you, and we think you'll believe me."  
"We?"  
"Yeah, she likes you."  
"You realise the only reason I'm not calling Heightmeyer is the Lycan thing right? If I hadn't already seen that I would think you were nuts right now, as it is, I will give you time to change my mind before I call her."

John grinned.

"And how do I convince you?"  
"Not like that! And get your mind out of the gutter. Explain please."  
"Ok. When we got here, I could feel something, like I was being watched, and there was a, something, in the back of my mind, almost like a voice, but not anything you could hear. You know when you look at me like I've done something unbelievably stupid? You don’t say anything but I know exactly what you mean, well its like that. I couldn’t hear her talk, just feel her. Then we got the Mark II's hooked up and she finally started talking to me, not much, she doesn’t have much power to spare, she's trying to sort out her memory recall so she can tell us where the Lanteans left the Potentia Vis, and there should be a manufacturing station somewhere, if she can find it."  
"Manufacture? You mean the Zed PM? She knows how to make them?"  
"Well, not really, ya see, 10,000 years of sitting here slowly going nuts has played havoc with her memory, she can't just fix it her self, she needs a hand, which is why she likes you so much, you can figure her out without having to be told."  
"I am a genius, I keep telling people but they don’t listen. She really likes me?"  
"Of course she does, she hasn’t fried you yet. She likes Zelenka too."  
"Really? But she likes me more right?"  
"Rodney, I like you more."  
"Oh. Ok. Right, so, Atlantis has an AI."  
"Yeah.."  
"Right, so you can turn into a huge white wolf and Atlantis talks to you, because she's an advanced AI. Right. Ok, I can work with this, where do I start on helping with her memories, because that would be the most important thing here, if there is a manufacturing plant out there somewhere and her recall is the only thing standing between me and it, I'll fix her memory."  
"She keeps telling me the mainframe itself is her mind, every time we interact with it we are basically invading her mind, that's why its so hard to find anything, the Lanteans used to ask her, they didn’t try to find things their selves, but she says there's some physical damage somewhere, something she can't heal, all she knows is it hurts."

John tapped the wall by his bed and the panel sank into the wall and shifted to the side uncovering a computer screen. Rodney gasped and pushed him aside so he could get a closer look. John chuckled.

"Where did this come from? How did you find it? Why didn’t you tell me?"  
"She just told me it was there, so I told you. Just look at the schematics, she's trying to show you where it hurts."  
"Yes, yes, sorry, show me!"

The schematics of Atlantis came up on the screen before she slowly centred and zoomed in on a room beneath the main spire.

"I know this! We went past it because of the damage, it's on my fix list, why aren't you getting dressed? Come on, hurry!"  
"Why?"  
"Because we are going to fix Atlantis!"  
"Rodney, I'm not an engineer! I just got almost eaten! I did get dead! I ache and I'm tired and I need to stretch before I develop a terminal cramp! Please don’t make me come?"

Rodney stared at him in stunned surprise as he whined.

"Are you kidding? What are you, five? Yes, you had a bad day, I had to watch it, while trying to fix a Jumper, so yeah, it sucks, now get over it! If I fix this she can find her memories, I can make more ZedPM's, we can save Atlantis and Pegasus and Earth and the Milky Way and be home in time for supper! Besides, Atlantis said she was hurting, you have to help her."  
"She's put up with it for this long, she doesn’t mind if I recover for five minutes, even Weir said I could have time off, I don’t feel so good."  
"Quit your bitching and get dressed, or I can drag you out like you are, nobody will mind, in fact, I think it would make quite a few peoples day."  
"Rodney!"  
"What? I thought you were ok with nudity?"  
"Not with you putting me on display! Like anyone wants to see that anyway?"  
"What is with the modesty?"  
"Huh?"  
"John, when you look in a mirror, what do you see?"  
"I don’t, I don’t bother with mirrors."  
"Well, that explains the hair, though to be fair, there is a betting pool on just how long you spend on it every morning to make it look like that."

John reached a hand up and self consciously ran it through his hair.

"What's wrong with my hair?"  
"Nothing a good cut and brush wouldn’t fix. Not the point! Get dressed and move, we have to fix Atlantis, and you are wasting my time."  
"You don’t have to wait, I could meet you there?"

John looked so hopeful as he said that, that Rodney almost let him get away with it, but he was sure the repairs would be a lot quicker and easier with John there, so he stuck it out and ignored the most appropriate puppy eyes ever.

"Don’t ever play poker. Or negotiate. Or trade. Or anything you might have to bluff for Sheppard, because you are as bad as I am at lying, and that's saying something. As soon as I leave you'll shift, curl up and go back to sleep, so move, now!"

Rodney was no Alpha, but he could certainly sound like one when he wanted to. John had jumped up and was pulling his trousers back on before he thought about it. When he turned to glare at Rodney for catching him out he expected to see him looking smug, only he found him fixated on his ass instead, a glint of hunger in his eyes. John blushed but slowed down, just to make sure he had time for a proper look, until he had his trousers up, wiggling just a little more than absolutely necessary, then hurried to finish dressing. Rodney continued to watch him as he finished, sighing as he was finally all covered up. Then he dragged him out of the room, calling Zelenka as he walked, telling him where to meet them and what tools to bring which was most of them. It didn’t take them long to get to the transporter, and from there to the damaged room. John was slower than usual but Rodney wasn’t really paying attention, so he didn’t notice the shaking in his hands either. Rodney started poking around while they waited for Zelenka and John just propped his self up against a clear bit of wall and watched him, smiling faintly at his bitching about the state of the room and the morons that had allowed such damage to occur in such an important room in the first place. Zelenka arrived before too long with the tools and they started really fixing things, however slowly, instead of just bitching about it, thought they both bitched more than enough. Rodney was too engrossed in what he was doing to pay attention to anything, including what was coming out of his mouth, but Zelenka was a little more observant, and noticed John slide down the wall less than gracefully, to slump panting at its base. 

"Major? You are ok? Should you be out of infirmary? Rodney? Rodney! Major is not well!"

Rodney finally realised he was being spoken to and was about to shout at the culprit for interrupting when he noticed John slumped on the floor, pale, sweating and panting loudly.

"Shit! I thought you were exaggerating! Why did you let me drag you down here you imbecile! We have to get Carson!"  
"No! Just need my room, rest. Stretch, please Rodney?"  
"John, you're ill, you need Carson!"  
"No! Need to stretch, please?"

Zelenka was looking between the two of them in confusion until Rodney swore he saw the light bulb switch on as he figured out what was going on. 

"You stretch Major, Lycan need to stretch, you shift now, no surveillance here, is safe!"

Rodney glared daggers at both of them for a moment until he realised John was just as surprised as he was, so he couldn’t have told Zelenka his self, so he hadn't lied when he said he hadn't told anyone, which begged the question, how did Zelenka know? Zelenka obviously realised they were both wondering that and he grinned.

"Czech Republic is old country, much history, we know things, things forgotten or ignored by others, we remember. Lycans in old village, for many years, friendly family, we hide them when Hunters come, only they come too many times, they get scared, move away while they can. But injured Lycan must stretch, or get bad, no choice. So you stretch now, we be pack, if you want?"

The doctor was too hopeful for John to stand a chance at arguing with him, he was like an omega, so sweet and helpful and smart, not like John, a beta, a fighter, he was someone to protect, even more than Rodney, because Rodney stood up for his self and rarely needed protecting unless there were Wraith around. John smiled even as he began to shiver and tried to wriggle out of his clothes. Rodney sighed as he saw him struggle and dove straight in to help him strip while Zelenka started on his boots.

"Well, I know I couldn’t wait to strip you off but this is ridiculous, and not at all what I wanted!"  
"I don’t need to know! Is good you finally got together, I win pool, but don’t need details!"  
"What pool?"

By then John was stripped and shimmered for a second before a white wolf was laid on the floor at their feet. Zelenka gasped as he looked at him, not hesitating to crouch down and offer him his hand to sniff before starting to pet him.

"Beautiful! Never saw a white wolf, very rare! Krásný!(Beautiful!)"  
"Yes, yes, and he's mine, already taken, you can't have him."

John buried his head beneath his paws and whined at that.

"Rtomilozý! Nikdy jsem neviděl nikoho, ale štěně udělat dříve, tak rozkošný! Jako kdyby mě chtěl. (Cute! I have never seen anyone but a puppy do this before, so adorable! As if he would want me.)"  
"Yes, yes, whatever you're muttering about, speak English, I know you can, however badly, at least I can understand you then."

Zelenka grinned up at him as he continued to fuss a now very relaxed and happy John.

" Já vím, proč si myslíš, že jsem to neudělal?(I know that, why do you think I do not do it?)"

Rodney glared at him as he continued to grin unrepentantly.

"You know, one day you're going to do that to the wrong person and they will understand you, then you'll be in trouble!"

John chuffed out what was obviously his wolf version of a laugh and wagged his tail. Rodney sighed and shook his head while trying to keep the fond smile off his face.

"Right, if this is all you need you can just sit there and play guard dog while we work, Atlantis seems happy enough with you in the room so I can live without your opposable thumbs for now. Just get some rest. And you can get back to work Zelinky."

Zelenka grinned at him some more while scratching John behind the ear for a moment before getting to his feet.

"Radek, we are pack now, yes? You call me Radek, and you must remember!"  
"Oh for goodness sake, fine, whatever, pack, like I'm gonna remember anyway."

Zelenka just carried on grinning as he went back to work, for all Rodney's bluster he had seen the slight flush and could hear just how pleased he was by the idea of them being pack, and he knew a larger pack could only help John more, Lycan's never did well alone, especially not Betas, which John obviously was, Radek had grown up around Lycans and the patriarch of the family was so obviously Alpha, there was no mistaking it, and John was not. It made him wonder how John coped with being put in charge of so many people, he made a mental note to discus it with Rodney as soon as he could.

**************

Life went on slowly for the expedition, but particularly Rodney, John and Radek, they spent every spare moment trying to fix the physical damage to Atlantis 'memory' so she could help them more, not that they had many spare moments. Bates accused Teyla or one of her people of selling them out to the Wraith and John argued it, but he could hardly tell Elizabeth he could smell their fear and anger every time they were mentioned, so they had to prove their innocence the long way. They met a planet of children that nearly bought John to tears so many times, and not only for the sheer waste of life. They found a whole planet of people who would rather kill their selves than let the Wraith feed off them, which left John conflicted, because he very nearly agreed with them, but they hurt Carson and that couldn’t be forgiven, the man had made his self pack within the first few months of the expedition, along with Teyla and Ford. Teyla introduced them to the Genii, and they all found out they were not what they seemed. John didn’t like the smell of them from the start, not one of them smelt honest, and it didn’t take long to find out why. The fog planet was a nightmare, it messed with Johns senses and everyone's minds, but through it all he kept his secret, he kept his mind and he managed a not too bad job of leading his Gate team and the rest of the military, gaining the trust of most of the people on the expedition, slowly but surely, and managing to keep relations between the military and civilians peaceful and friendly. 

Then the storm came, and the Genii followed.

Looking back afterwards John could see it was the month he won Atlantis and started to win Pegasus, it was the defining act of any career, gaining him the unreserved and unconditional trust, loyalty and admiration of almost every member of the expedition, it was the week that cemented him as the protector of Pegasus, it was the beginning of the rest of his life, a much easier, and less stressful in many ways, life where he was loved for who and what he was, not condemned for what his record or family said about him, where he no longer had to hide. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and grants much wisdom. At the time he thought his life was over, he never expected to survive let alone come out of it better off. 

*************

Rodney and Radek still hadn't been able to fix all of the damage to Atlantis memory when they realised they were about to be wiped out by a 'perfect' storm. They both spent as long as Elizabeth would allow on the job but eventually they had to evacuate everyone to Manara. Only John, Rodney and Elizabeth were left in the city with two marines, with Teyla, Ford and Carson stuck on the mainland with the last few Athosians, when the Genii arrived and killed the marines while John was trying to shut down the last grounding station. John tried, he really did, he listened to what was going on and he tried to do the right thing, the military thing, but then Kolya threatened Rodney and instinct kicked in. John had shifted before he had time to think, wriggling out of his clothes quickly and bounding through Atlantis corridors as fast as his huge paws would take him. Atlantis was singing in the back of his mind, telling him where to avoid the Genii and where they were holding his mate. He didn’t even think about Elizabeth, she never crossed his mind, and as he reached the control room and might possibly have stopped and thought, he howled as he recognised the smell of Rodney's blood. Every Genii stopped and stared at him as he pounded up the stairs and ripped the throat out of the man whose knife stank of Rodney. Elizabeth screamed but he didn’t even notice, all he was aware of was the tall dark haired, scared man holding Rodney by the throat. The man stared at him, his face a blank wall but stinking of adrenalin and curiosity, John just growled at them, every one of them shaking, unable to keep their eyes off him except for the brief horrified glances at the man he had just killed. 

Elizabeth was apparently quicker than any of the Genii, she looked between John and Rodney, realised that Rodney had relaxed as soon as he saw the monster wolf instead of the obvious terror the rest of the people there felt, and realised she was definitely missing something. So she acted like she knew something the Genii didn’t.

"He will leave you alone as long as you don’t threaten Rodney, you can see he's only interested in our safety, he wont attack again if you leave us alone."

Kolya looked at her in clear disbelief but his people were edging away as fast as they could, clearly feeling better when he ignored them, concentrating on Rodney like she had said.

"What is it?"  
"'He' is a wolf! My wolf, Kessler. He'll kill anyone that hurts me!"  
"And what if I kill you Dr McKay?"

John growled loudly, baring his teeth as his hackles rose and he crouched ready to tear Kolya limb from limb. Kolya seemed to get the hint.

"A strangely intelligent animal Doctor, to know the meaning of my words, and very loyal."  
"Like you wouldn’t believe! You really want to let me go now, you don’t want him getting any madder than he is!"

One of the soldiers had obviously decided that everyone's attention was firmly on John or Rodney, so he decided to win his self a name by taking out the wolf. He failed. John was concentrating on Rodney, but Atlantis wasn’t, as soon as the gun began to move she warned him and he moved. John flipped up and over in a move that should have been a lot slower for an animal his size, turning in mid air to land facing the idiot and about five foot closer to him, then he took one huge bounding leap, grabbed his throat in his jaw and shook, breaking his neck and then ripped his throat out before he hit the ground, turning and jumping back to where he could watch over Rodney before anyone even registered he had moved. There were several yells of fear as people realised just what had happened, a few ran to the downed man to try and help before they realised it was too late. Elizabeth shook as she stared at the second dead man but Rodney was more interested in living.

"I told you not to threaten us! I told you! Leave now and he'll leave you alone, he's just protecting us!"

Kolya was still staring at John, only now with a calculating glint in his eyes.

"A very interesting animal Doctor. Where did you get him?"  
"Earth, where we came from, he's very rare, and he wont listen to anyone but me! And don’t even think of trying to use me as a hostage, he'll kill you or die trying, and he probably wont even listen to me while you're trying to control me so don’t even think about it!"  
"I think Doctor, it would profit us both to be friends. I was obviously too hasty letting Cowen order me here. I think it's time to negotiate, don’t you?"  
"I suggested that when you got here. Why did lives have to be lost before you listen? If you want to negotiate I suggest you send your people home before the storm hits and we all die. You and one other may stay, unarmed, and we will negotiate once the storm has passed."

Rodney had to admit he was impressed with Elizabeth, she had mostly kept her cool and played the situation like a maestro, even though she must have been scared out of her wits at least some of the time. Kolya was thinking along the same lines. He nodded to Elizabeth and slowly let go of Rodney. Rodney leapt away from him, straight to John and threw his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly and babbling his thanks and appreciation. Kolya didn’t move a muscle as Rodney hugged the enormous animal that was still watching him, the Doctor ignoring the raised hackles and bared teeth as well as the blood covering the animals face and chest. There was something amazing about this animal, it was too intelligent, watched him with anger while he was threatening Rodney, nothing like even the best trained animal he had ever come across, and he couldn’t loose the opportunity to learn more about it, even if he couldn’t turn it away from McKay, maybe they could work together. Despite being amoral Kolya was not stupid, nor was he slow, he knew a good thing when he saw it and he could change as fast as the wind when he needed to, he was also capable of great loyalty, he just hadn't found anyone worthy of it until now. 

Even after Rodney was free and hugging him it took a long while for John to relax enough to take his eyes off Kolya, and then only long enough to curl his head down over Rodney's shoulder for a moment with a chuff that would have been a relieved sigh in his human form. His eyes went back to Kolya as soon as they opened again and he knew things were about to change, he just hoped it would be for the better. Kolya nodded to him, ignoring Elizabeth entirely. John nodded back, giving the man confirmation there was definitely more going on than the obvious, and Kolya smiled, a genuine, happy smile as he realised life was about to change too. Then he looked at his men.

"Radim, you stay with me, no weapons, the rest of you get the others and get ready to leave as soon as everything is back as we found it. Get off this city an hour ago."

Ladon Radim looked at the superior officer he had begun to question and smiled, finally agreeing fully with an order for the first time in many months. It took less than ten minutes for all of his people to gather ready to leave. Rodney opened the Gate and they went home, empty handed for now, but so much better off than they had been, it would just take a while to understand how much so. As soon as they were gone John gave Rodney a lick and tore off through the corridors to the last grounding station, shifting to finish what he had started and clean up before shifting back, grabbing up his clothes and running back to Rodney. Rodney, Elizabeth, Kolya and Radim stared at him as he ran up the stairs to the control room with 'John's' clothes in his mouth and Rodney shook his head in disbelief.

"Really? This is your plan? Seriously? Genius, really. More like Darwin Award candidate!"

Rodney continued muttering under his breath as he finished rigging Atlantis to run the shield from the lightning. Elizabeth was looking as cool and calm as she could, though John could smell the residual fear and nerves on her. Radim couldn’t take his eyes off Rodney, trying to understand what he was doing and how, but Kolya couldn’t take his eyes off John except for the moment he glanced at the clothes he had now dropped at Rodney's feet, where he was sitting, just in case anyone tried anything stupid. Radim forgot his self for a moment, stepping forward to try and see what Rodney was doing better, only to jump back a hell of a lot faster when John bared his teeth and growled at him, his ears flat against his head and hackles raised. Kolya laughed, loud and hard in obvious true amusement, he was now almost sure he knew what was going on, he just had to confirm it.

"It's an honour to meet you Major Sheppard. I regret the circumstances, but I take it, as I am still alive, that we can get past that."

Elizabeth had looked around trying to find John when Kolya started talking, finally realising he was actually talking to the wolf and wondered if they were dealing with a complete lunatic. Until the wolf shimmered and her head of military was knelt on the floor at Rodney's feet, stark naked and apparently not bothered in the least.

"You even smell like you might hurt him again and I'll rip you apart slowly."

Elizabeth would have complained bitterly about that, and planed to later when they were alone, but Kolya chuckled.

"Of course, I would expect no less for your mate."  
"What?"

Elizabeth couldn’t believe she had lost control of herself like that, but to be fair, she had just seen an enormous wolf turn into her Major and then heard Rodney referred to as his very male mate! She gave herself a little slack in the circumstances. Kolya shot her a look of amusement and a little distain, the fact that she didn’t know her people bothered him. He turned back to John.

"What are your conditions?"  
"What do you want?"  
"Equal partnership."  
"My pack will never take your orders."  
"My men are flexible, but ultimately they answer to me."  
"As pack should. Rodney can fix your shielding issues, and Carson can help any sick you send here, anybody living in this city answers to us, follows our rules and laws, we'll get you a copy, and doesn’t argue with me."

Elizabeth cleared her throat to get his attention politely. They ignored her.

"That is uncommonly generous, all things considered."  
"I'm uncommon in a lot of ways."  
"As I see,"  
"I will welcome you if you come in peace, we can work together, we can be close allies or you can be part of our pack, but fight me, betray me, and I will destroy you utterly, man woman and child, no second chances."  
"I will take your offer to my people, but if nothing else, my men and I will take you up on your offer, I am willing to follow you."  
"And he's mine! Already completely taken so keep your hands off or 'I'll' tear you apart."  
"Rodney!"  
"Of course Doctor McKay, as you say, he is taken. But there is no harm in looking."  
"Gentlemen! Maybe you could give us a little less to look 'at' Major?"

John turned to look at her, head tilted in a familiar, and now reminiscent of his other form, way, obviously confused. Rodney had finished protecting the city and shook his head again at the density of his lover.

"Get dressed you moron! You don’t want to make them feel inadequate."  
"Ouch, you cut deep with that tongue Dr McKay. I take it that's not all it does well?"

John growled at that, a deep and unhappy rumbling in his chest that was no less threatening for the lack of four legs and fur. Kolya chuckled again, a true smile on his face again.

"I apologise, I mean only fun, though maybe it is too soon for such jokes, or are they not appropriate in your culture?"  
"Not at all, between 'friends', but he's possessive and I'm jealous. You also just outed us to our boss."  
"Outed?"  
"She didn’t know we were together."  
"And this is a problem?"

Kolya looked more than a little confused at this, Elizabeth decided it was best to smooth over the idea before it became an issue.

"That is a conversation for my men and I for a later time."

She was ignored again, she really didn’t appreciate it.

"Why?"

Rodney was not one to miss an opportunity to rant about the ridiculous American military rules.

"Because we're both male! The backward idiots of the American military think it's disgusting and will kick John out as soon as they find out, probably throw him in prison! Elizabeth will probably fire him as soon as you leave, or try and ban us from being together so she can keep her military commander. Their government is insane, they still think any man that prefers men to women must be incapable of defending his country, or he'll infect 'good God fearing Americans' with a love of cock!"  
"Doctor McKay! That is more than enough!"  
"Oh I don’t think it is actually, because as soon as these two leave it'll be threats and sanctions for both of us! And I wont allow it. We all know without John we wouldn’t be sat here talking, we'd be dead or still killing each other, and without me this city would fall. Tell me I'm wrong, go on! You can't! He's mine, and you wont take him from me any more than Commander Sassy Pants over there! So we can deal with this in front of witnesses, then you can't go back on it without paying for it, because we both know Kolya isn't interested in an alliance with 'you'!"

Elizabeth glanced at Kolya and saw the truth of that instantly, then looked at John only to find his head bowed, staring at the floor like he hoped it would swallow him and Rodney petting his hair where his head was leaning against his leg. Kolya snorted inelegantly. 

"You will never separate those two, and I wont deal with a leader that obviously doesn’t know her men. I will treat with Sheppard, no other."

It was plain to everyone this was as much to get on Johns good side as it was for an honest belief in what he had just said, but the fact remained that if she wanted peace with the next biggest military power in Pegasus she would have to go through John, which meant ignoring the many laws and rules he was breaking by being with Rodney. She gave it one last try.

"It's not just about bigotry, fraternisation rules are there for a reason, and you know it."  
"It hasn’t made a difference yet, and we've been together for months, and if you think he'd do anything for me in the field that he wouldn’t for the others you don’t know him as well as you think you do."

That surprised her but she wasn’t willing to give up just yet, she looked directly at John and asked in her most sympathetic voice.

"And what happens next time you loose control because Rodney has been threatened John?"  
"He did not look like a man, or animal, out of control. He knew exactly what he was doing, why and how. He took control of the situation, saving you from a dozen armed men, and only killed two. And he is sat here treating with the men that threatened his mate, not killing us slowly. That is nearly the definition of control, what more do you want?"

Elizabeth really couldn’t answer that, or argue with it. Kolya nodded as soon as he knew his point had been made. He was about to continue when John's head shot up.

"They're back!"  
"Who?"  
"Teyla, Carson and Ford, they just landed the Jumper, there are others with them."  
"Not mine."

Kolya pointed out quickly but calmly.

"No, she says they're Athosian."  
"Good, Teyla found them. You should probably tell them its ok, I take it you got through to them earlier?"  
"Yes. Atlantis, can you patch me through to the Jumper bay please? Thanks. Teyla? It's all clear, invasion over, we're in the control room with a couple of Genii, please don’t shot anyone!"

Teyla's worried voice came over the speakers as Elizabeth stared at John in shock again.

"John? Are you well?"  
"Yeah, it's all good, they aren't armed, we're safe. It's me Rodney and Weir with Kolya and his man Radim of the Genii, its fine now."

Teyla was obviously a little sceptical but said they would be right down. Rodney looked at John and huffed his exasperation.

"I know you see them as pack but get dressed!"

John ducked his head sheepishly and started dragging his clothes on quickly, everyone else looking at least a little disappointed as he did so. 

"How did you know they were back?"

Elizabeth was staring at John like she had just met him, finally getting to grips with the fact that she really didn’t know him. Kolya didn’t fail to notice, his opinion of her just falling even further. John didn’t notice any of it as he was busy getting dressed and avoiding eye contact. Both Rodney and Kolya were very alpha personalities and had been 'fighting' over him, and Teyla was on her way, now the danger to Rodney was past he was feeling the adrenalin crash and the fear and pressure of having to try and act like he was in control, it really didn’t help that Rodney had put him in the middle with Elizabeth too, though he had done so with the best of intentions and really couldn’t have done it any other way.

"Atlantis told me."  
"Atlantis is a city, and I didn’t hear any warnings."  
"Don’t be dense Elizabeth! I told you months ago she communicates with him! You still didn’t believe us, did you? After everything we explained, after she told him about the damage? None of it?"  
"It's a city Dr McKay, an advanced one but still just a collection of buildings and computers."

The city shook and the lights flashed for a long moment, just long enough for Teyla to arrive and Elizabeth to panic. John just leant against the nearest wall and petted it while talking to her.

"Hush delicium(Darling), she doesn’t know any better, not her fault cicaro(Pet). Mitescere delicium, mitescere.(Calm down darling, calm down.)"  
"You speak Ancient?"

John looked at Elizabeth slightly shocked and a little insulted by her tone of stunned disbelief.

"Latin. Its on my record, I went to privet school, and Stanford. They don’t just pick officers randomly, you have to have some form of education."  
"As I am aware Major, but nobody mentioned it to me. I am trying to translate a lot of Ancient, and it is very closely related to Latin, you could have helped with that."  
"When? While he was sleeping, or while he was eating maybe? You do realise he hasn’t stopped since we got here right?"  
"Things could have been arranged Rodney, the translation is very important."  
"To you, I find survival more important, and that's what he's been working on. I also find it very important to finish the repairs I have been trying to do but you keep calling me away whenever I find a minute to work on it."  
"One more repair doesn’t make much difference."  
"Unless it leads to a better interface with a 10,000 plus year old AI that can tell us how to make more ZedPM's."  
"Again? I have given you my opinion on that and wont be dragged back into the same argument again. Now, I believe we have a treaty to work on. I suggest Commander Kolya return home and talk to his leaders, we can reconvene in a week or so, how long do you think you will need Commander?"  
"I think if Sheppard can be ready in ten days then so can I."

It was a pointed yet subtle reminder that John was the only one he would treat with, she was just hosting at best. She didn’t like the reminder, especially in front of Teyla and Ford who were watching silently. Rodney snorted.

"Maybe you would all like to remember why we are here in the first place? That storm isn't over and there is still lightning running through the corridors, its just lucky the Jumper bay is grounded separately. We should all get comfortable, it'll probably be another hour or so before we'll be safe without the shields, and that would be pushing it." 

Kolya grinned at John.

"Maybe we can pass the time talking Major? You can maybe share a little of your self with us?"  
"I would rather know what has occurred here, your call was most troubling John."

Teyla was obviously worried and a little annoyed. John just looked sheepish.

"Sorry Teyla."  
"Teyla Emmagan I take it? It is our fault I'm afraid. We were sent here to take advantage of your evacuation to steal medicine and weapons, Cowan sent us, gave me free rein to do as I saw fit, and suggested that if I killed you all and took the city I could expect a happy retirement whenever I was ready and the post of my choice until then. Then your Major changed my mind."

Kolya looked directly at John, refusing to 'out' him to anyone else without permission. Rodney wasn’t so shy, or diplomatic.

"Oh for goodness sake, John's a Lycan and he's mine, anyone got a problem with that?"

Weir glared at him again, she was never going to be able to keep this quiet at this rate. Teyla raised an eyebrow in curiosity, Ford looked more than a little stunned as well as curious and Carson, who had just walked in with the Athosians, smiled, though he was also curious about the Lycan part, but not as much as he would be once he knew what it was. John just ducked his head again.

"Oh for… you know what, there's only one way to do this fast. John, top off."  
"Rodney!"

Several voices rose at the same time but Rodney just snorted at them and John ignored them as he listened to his mate. 

"Now shift."

John paused for a moment, looking at Rodney. Rodney smiled sweetly at him and he smiled back before shimmering back to his wolf form. He didn’t stay that way long, it was really uncomfortable in his work trousers. To be fair, all of them dealt with the surprise well, the biggest reaction being Ford's "Whoa!" Teyla just raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly, just like she had when they first met and he told her he loved tea. The other Athosians were a little more intrigued but they kept it quiet and left him alone, whispering amongst their selves. Ford was torn between jumping up and down in excitement and acting stoic while praying nobody told him it was a secret because he couldn’t wait to tell everyone! 

They waited out the storm with Teyla and Kolya discussing possible futures for them all, John and Rodney trying to answer Carson and Ford's questions, the Athosians talking amongst their selves and Weir stewing, having given up even trying to get Kolya to negotiate or even talk with her. Rodney eventually told everyone the storm had passed and Atlantis was safe once more, then sent John off to re-engage the grounding stations and 'called' Manara to tell their people they could come home. Kolya was having a few quiet parting words with Teyla, having been keeping an eye on Weir.

"That one will need watching Emmagan, she reminds me of Cowan. These new friends of ours are strange, they have strange ways and will take a lot of learning, but jealousy is the same in any people, and she doesn’t like Sheppard taking what she considers her place."  
"I know. I will watch her well. She is not as good a leader as she believes, she has her own rules and tries too hard to impose them on others. John is not comfortable being a leader, but it suits him well, he learns and adapts, as one must to survive. We would not be here now if not for John, she would have lead these people to disaster more than once already. She allowed her man Bates to accuse me of being a Wraith Collaborator! And refused to punish him when I was proven innocent, after condemning me for defending my self."  
"Really? I had not thought even she would stoop so low! I think she is lucky it was you and not I, I would have cut his tongue out and maimed any that tried to stop me."  
"Yes, it did cross my mind, but John is softer than us in many ways, physical punishment of his own men being one of them."  
"Really? How does he keep order?"  
"They were all trained to obey orders before they got here, and any that don’t he gives to Rodney."  
"How does Rodney discipline them?"  
"He just treats them like he does everyone when he is working in his laboratory. I visited him there, once, he is, well, he must be seen to be believed, I would prefer the company of a Wraith, at least those I can kill."  
"Why do you stay? Why have you not killed him?"  
"Because when he is with our team, or just not working on science, he is a wonderful man. He can be boastful, but his boasts are never untrue, he can be arrogant but with reason, he does go on about any and all discomfort, unless it is truly bad, then he will show such bravery as you have never seen. He is loving and loyal and can be so sweet, but he is so very awkward with others, it is as though he was banished as a child and never learnt how to be around others, but he means well and he makes up for it all by being as loyal a man as you could ever wish to meet. Like John, once you have his loyalty, as long as you never betray him, you will always have it, and they would both die for their friends. Prove you are loyal to them, and they will be loyal to you, that is how they are, and though Elizabeth is named leader of their expedition, John and Rodney lead the people, none of us truly follow her, we follow them. Even those of Earth, the military follow John, it is in their rules, in time of war he has the right to take over, and here the war never ends so their rules make him the leader. And the scientists follow Rodney, much as he terrorises them they would do anything for him, because they know he is the one that has and will save all our lives if anything goes wrong."  
"They truly have your loyalty don’t they?"  
"Without a doubt. I will follow John till death, and I will protect Rodney with my life, most on Atlantis feel the same."

Kolya considered Teyla for a long moment.

"And this was before you knew what Sheppard could become. My men had that kind of belief in me once, before I gave up and let men like Cowen take over our lives. We survive in constant fear, while you have learnt how to live, it is an example I used to feel we should follow, you father was a great man, and better leader, but I let the fear weigh me down, and I backed the wrong man. At least I have lived to realise my mistake and have the chance to fix it."  
"I remember my father speaking of a young man named Acastus, he said he was a good man, and easily taught. Possibly too easily."

Kolya glared at her for a moment at the insult but couldn’t really argue it, he had just admitted as much his self, then he realised exactly what she was saying. She could see he wasn’t an evil man, just a little too easily swayed by a more dominant personality, and had been lead in the wrong direction when he was younger. He had been old enough to know better for a long time though, he had just given up, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t change.

"Possibly, but all may change if they wish to. I shall see you in ten days."

Teyla smiled as Kolya and Ladon finally returned home, then turned to look at John and Rodney. The smile fell off her face as she saw Elizabeth watching the two of them, Kolya was right, there was going to be trouble there.

***************

"Go on Major! Its only logical! You really should, you know, we all need to know how to fight with you, what happens if we get attacked and you have to change to save us? If we aren't used to it we could freak out!"  
"Or just be too busy staring at you to pay attention to saving their own asses. I hate to say it but I actually agree with Ford, everyone here needs to be used to you, with our luck lives will depend on it sooner rather than later. Go ahead John."

It was the day after the storm and like any good secret, everybody in the city had known about John within hours of gating back from Manara. By the following morning Ford had been practically begging him to 'train' with the marines in his wolf form. John looked at Rodney to make sure he really meant it, then started stripping his clothes off. Ford was grinning like a lunatic until he realised John wasn’t stopping at his top half.

"Major? What are you doing?"

John and Rodney looked at him in confusion for a moment then glanced at the rest of the marines, who were looking less than comfortable.

"Stripping?"  
"Why?"  
"You wanted to play with the wolf you moron! Did you think he was going to keep his pants on?"  
"Well, don’t they change with you?"  
"Oh my God! I know I call you a moron all the time but I never really thought it until now! What do you think this is? A Sci-Fi movie? He's not a film prop Ford! He changes shape, not polyester!"

John just shook his head and continued to strip, knowing Rodney could handle a good berating better than he could anyway, and planning to quietly remind Rodney that he had asked the same question when he first found out. Once he was naked he looked to Rodney, he was just fine standing around bare, and it was quite amusing to see the big bad marines blushing and averting their eyes, and waited for his lover to tell him to get on with it. Rodney finally decided they had suffered enough and nodded to John to shift. John changed with his usual swift shimmer and the huge white wolf stood in front of the base's contingent of marines and shook his fur out before licking Rodney's hand and sitting next to his leg, leaning in to him. There was a round of shocked and awed gasps and exclamations and a hint of fear over laying it all, which was why Rodney had agreed to this, they all had to get back to trusting John implicitly, without hesitation or the expedition would fall apart. He absently reached down and rubbed Johns ear while he was thinking about how they could get people used to him quickly, when he realised a lot of people were grinning at them. John was leaning right into his hand, tongue lolling out of his mouth, eyes half closed as he obviously relished the petting. Yeah, a real fierce predator! They were really going to fear him after this display. Which was good to start with, though they would have to realise soon that he was an accomplished killer, but that could wait for a while.

Ford collected his self quicker than the others, having known what was coming, and obviously knew dogs at least, as he stepped forward and offered his hand to John for sniffing instead of diving right in. Rodney looked at the room full of marines trying to get a better look at their CO and made a decision. 

"The only way this is going to get done any time today is if you all just sit down on the floor and let him come to you."

The marines all looked at Rodney, then John, then to Ford. Ford grinned at them and sat down.

"You heard the Doc, get comfy."

The marines soon sat down and John started wandering around them all, giving them a good sniff and imprinting their scents so he would recognise them all immediately in any situation without having to worry about attacking any of his own people in the heat of battle. It didn’t take long for someone to giggle when he sniffed their neck, the 6 feet plus marine, built like a brick outhouse, was very ticklish! John noted him, and every other person that reacted to him, and once he had finished imprinting their scents he headed back to Franks, the first man to giggle at him, and licked a stripe right up his neck before snuffling behind his ear as loudly as possible, tormenting the man until he couldn’t help giggling and puling away. It didn’t take long after that for the whole group to be rolling around the floor wrestling and playing, John jumping over people and bounding around the room in obvious high spirits barking and yipping, winding them up even further as they tried, and failed miserably, to catch him. Rodney just stood back against a wall, staying out of the way and grinning as he watched them all. 

John spent most of that day on four legs, wandering the city at Rodney's side, letting everyone get used to him, and really enjoying the positive emotions coming his way from most of the people there. A few people were just naturally wary of a large, carnivorous, predator being in the city but soon got used to the fact that it really was Sheppard, the laid back, easy going Major they knew and trusted. For the two days after that John spent most of his time on two legs but shifted whenever he needed to travel a significant distance and when he had nothing specific he had to do. He spent a few hours each day training with his men, in both forms, and they all found they still trusted him just as much as they ever had, though they were now a little more wary of pissing him off, after 'someone' had mentioned 'animal' and John had pinned him to the floor snarling in his face before he even knew he was there, nobody had made that mistake again. Then everything went to hell in a hand-basket. 

******************

The meeting had dragged on for over an hour of Elizabeth ripping apart everything John and Rodney had done in the last three days, before she finally went too far.

"However conveniently you may have forgotten it, 'Major', this is a civilian run operation, 'I' am in charge here! Unless you're planning to change that, like you did with your last boss?"

It took a moment for that to really sink in, John had already had his head down, offering his neck in contrition, he knew he had behaved badly with the whole Genii situation and he had known he would pay for it, Elizabeth wasn’t his alpha but she was his boss, he should have been more careful when showing obedience to her leadership. He had gotten out of the habit of bowing to his senior officers while being in Pegasus, Elizabeth had always been overly friendly, so he had forgotten his place. The crack about Sumner was completely uncalled for, and unfair, John shrank into his seat and couldn’t hold back the almost sub-vocal whine. Rodney wasn’t anywhere near as docile.

"To think I was actually coming to respect you? How dare you? Oh, I knew I would pay for bringing up the whole DADT thing in front of the guests but that? You know damn well how much he still pays for that, the fact that you said it now! I thought negotiators had to have some kind of compassion, or at least a soul! And you may be 'nominally' in charge of this operation, but who keeps it running? Who keeps you alive to do that running? You think you can do this without us? You go ahead, try! And when it starts falling down around your ears who are you going to run crying to then? Have a nice reign your majesty, I can't wait till you start choking on it! John, with me, now!"

John had been curling further in on his self as the conversation went on but couldn’t help jumping to follow Rodney when he used that tone of voice. Elizabeth was livid as the doors swung open for them and she had a flash of the future without them, she was trying to bring the Major back in line, only she had miscalculated badly and now she had lost him completely.

"I haven't dismissed you Major! Stay right where you are if you want to keep your job! I run this expedition McKay! If you're not part of it you can get out of my city!"

Turns out that was the wrong thing to say. Elizabeth still didn’t really believe the whole 'AI' nonsense, she knew it was just Sheppard acting out thorough his gene, but it wasn’t much comfort when the doors slammed shut in her face and the lights started flashing and she heard a rushing noise which was really creepy, until she realised she couldn’t breath, that noise was the air being sucked out of the room! Elizabeth had tried her radio and was just starting to really panic when a panel in the wall shifted and a screen they had never found before was revealed, a very clear message flashing up for a moment before the whole thing seemed to disappear.

[YOU WONT WIN. I AM MY OWN AND HE IS MINE! YOU WILL NEVER BEAT ME CHILD!]

Elizabeth had backed up against the wall when the panel had opened, now she allowed herself to sink down to the floor, wondering where she had gone so wrong, and how they were going to explain her death. Then air rushed back into the room, leaving her gasping and coughing as it filled her aching lungs. She decided she deserved a break, so she stayed where she was, curled around her knees, shaking, until she was eventually called over the radio, which had 'mysteriously' started working again, over an hour later.

**************

John was doing his best, he really was, but he couldn’t keep this up for much longer. He had stepped up and taken command like he had been told to, he had protected everyone as best he could, he had done everything in his power to follow Weir's orders, he had lead his people in fights and exploration, he had fought Kolya, he had not only beaten him, he had made him an ally! Him and his army! With nukes! But it was never enough, people always wanted more from him, more than he could give. Except Rodney. Rodney who was still ranting about how unfair, unrealistic and stupid Weir was, how she would soon learn, even as he lead him to his lab. John idly wondered why they were going there when they had just resigned, but it wasn’t worth worrying about. Radek looked up at them both as Rodney stormed into the room with John meekly following, trying to hide behind his mate even now. 

"Rodney! What happened? Who did this?"

Radek waved his hand toward the obviously miserable figure of dejection that used to be John Sheppard. His head was right down, his shoulders right up, he had his arms wrapped around his self in a classic attempt at self comfort that really wasn’t working and he was still whining sub-vocally, he was a complete mess. Radek shook his head as Rodney started explaining about Weir and slowly moved closer to John, soon interrupting Rodney's rant.

"John, shift for us můj kluk(my boy), stretch out for a while and relax, yes? Hodný chlapec.(good boy)"

John didn’t even look up at him, he just shifted and stood there, head hanging in his wolf form, still in his clothes. Rodney sighed and helped Radek pull the clothes off him, glad he wasn’t in full gear for once, but too sad to be angry any more. 

"She accused him of killing Sumner for his position, asked if she was next."

Radek was speechless for a long moment before he started his own rant in Czech, Rodney didn’t get most of it, he was talking too fast, but one word he recognised kept coming up, otrava(Bitch). He eventually calmed down and Rodney smirked at him.

"I'm impressed, not many can rant that long without loosing steam."  
"You do."  
"Yes, but I'm a genius. Anyway, I have a plan. That's normally Johns department so don’t expect much in the way of details, but I told Weir to try without us for a while, so John and I are going to hole up in the memory room, I'm gonna get it fixed if it kills me. So I'm going to need a sleeping bag, lots of MRE's, a bowl for his lordship, plenty of water and a coffee machine. That should do us for a while, just long enough for her to plan a good grovel. If Kolya gets back before we come out just tell him where we are, he should have fun with 'Queen Weir the Ass'."  
"Shouldn’t that be Queen Elizabeth?"  
"Don’t be so insulting! She doesn’t have the right to that name!"  
"Breath Rodney! Sorry, sorry! Only one problem with your plan, we need two of everything."  
"I can't see John changing back until he has to, can you?"  
"No, but I refuse to share sleeping bag with you, John would not approve. We get much more done together, yes?"

Rodney stared at him for a long moment, unaccountably touched by the offer.

"Yes. Right. Ok. You get the food, I'll get the coffee."

Radek grinned, for all that Rodney was probably the smartest man in two galaxies, he was not over burdened with common sense, left to his own devices he would probably try living on just MRE's and coffee and forget anything and everything else. Radek was far from stupid, he had a PhD and was a genius in his own right, but he was raised in a small village in the Czech Republic with little money or resources, he knew how to plan to live, how to survive harsh winters on very little, and how to enjoy life while he went about it, because if you didn’t take a moment to enjoy what you could in life, what was the point in living? He also knew how to be sneaky and delegate. So while Rodney went to the mess in search of coffee Radek got on the radio, he knew exactly who he could trust, who would think it was justified, and who would just enjoy the mischief, and the few that would cheerfully poison Weir just because it would be a good test for their latest experiment (SGC testing was good, but sociopath and genius were very closely related, just look at Rodney!). It wasn’t long before he had a months supplies, just in case, in place in the 'memory' room, including more coffee and water, had informed Teyla what was happening so she wouldn’t worry and let his own minions know he and Rodney would be unavailable until further notice, so they would have to keep Weir at bay without actually doing anything she wanted or anything stupid, and they had his full permission to stop anyone that tried! 

************* 

John was still curled up in his wolf form, he still hadn't turned back, other than to use the 'facilities', since they locked their selves in and Rodney nor Radek thought he would until he was made to. To be fair, it wasn’t a bad idea considering, the three of them stuck in a small room was bad enough as it was, if he was human shaped and pacing one of the others would have probably done something dangerous by now, instead of the sympathetic annoyance they were showing his canine form, which demanded a lot more respect due to a big jaw and lots of sharp teeth. They were starting to worry though, because he wasn’t pacing nearly as much as he should be for the levels of boredom due after three days locked in one small room with nothing to occupy him other than watching them. They had another four days before Kolya was due back and Rodney was worried. Elizabeth had been conspicuously quiet, there had been no calls for them over the command channel, which Radek was monitoring, and nobody banging on the door, which just made him worry more, when he stopped working and thought about it. Radek was more pragmatic, he thought that Elizabeth was hoping to sweat them out, she probably hadn't expected them to be so organised, but even so they could only stay in here for so long, she would almost certainly want things 'dealt with' before Kolya returned though, so they only had a few more days before things got dangerous. 

The next four days would be traumatic, in one way or another, for the whole expedition, and he knew John knew that too, and was probably hiding because of the misplaced guilt. Lycans, Radek knew, were creatures of hierarchy, and they wouldn’t, couldn’t fight that, it was an integral part of their genetics. John was beta, a warrior, a fighter, capable of giving orders and fighting to the death for his people, but he was not a leader, he 'needed' someone to give him orders, someone to follow, which was probably why he had joined the military in the first place. Going against Elizabeth would be affecting him greatly, and not knowing what was happening to 'his' men would be even worse, wondering if they were still 'his', probably assuming they had gone against him, followed the 'alpha' and abandoned him, as most packs would with a renegade beta. The problem was with John's assumption that he was at fault, while almost everyone else could clearly see it was all down to Elizabeth, not John. On the bright side, they were very near to completing the physical repairs for Atlantis AI, three days of solid, uninterrupted work had left them with only a few more hours work at the most, the down side was that they would then have nothing physical to do in the room, which would only drive them all mad even faster. 

John's head suddenly shot up, looking to the ceiling then to Rodney and Radek, then he shifted, and he was smiling.

"She's done it! She's found it! We can get there in a jumper, come on, she has toys for me! And a friend, come on Rodney, we gotta go!"  
"John! Breath! Yes, I'm just as excited as you, but we have work to finish here, it'll only take an hour or two, then we can let her get on with fixing the rest of her mind, if we leave now it might be weeks before we can come back, because I don’t know what shape the manufacturing plant is in. We have to finish this first."  
"But!"  
"Rodney, you should go now, I can finish here."  
"I know you could, but like you said, we work better together, and besides, we don’t leave people behind, John taught me that. John, can you pack up everything we bought in with us? All the food, sleeping bags and blankets and stuff, we don’t know what the plant will be like when we get there, I would prefer to have a full engineering team and haz-mat and everything else I could possibly think of, as well as a week to plan and brief everyone, but we can't so I need everything you can get for me while we finish this."

John looked at him for a while, head tilted to the side as he thought, then he looked to Radek.

"Radek, if you asked them to help me, do you think I could work with your people? The ones you trust?"

Radek smiled at him, nodding.

"Of course John, of course."

It didn’t take a minute for Radek to talk to a few of his people and get them passed over to John, using a frequency only the 'foreign' science staff used, so they didn’t get told off for being 'inconsiderate' for using their own languages. John was amazed at just how easily they listened to him, he still hadn't realised just how dedicated most of the expedition were to him, but soon had everything he could think of stored in Jumper One, his favourite, ready for them to leave, now they just had to get to it! Once that was done John started packing up everything they had with them, they didn’t need to take it with them as he had everything they needed in the Jumper but he wouldn’t leave it behind in a mess for someone else to clear up either. It didn’t take as long as Rodney and Radek had thought to finish the work, so they were soon ready to leave. John looked at the two scientists and grinned, this was the kind of work he excelled at, extraction! 

"Right, first rule, don’t speak unless a life is on the line. Second rule, don’t argue with me, this is my job, extraction of prisoners and/or hostages from hostile territory, I know this shit as well as you know physics, so do what I tell you, when I tell you and this will go fine. Three, don’t stop. If we get separated, which we wont, you go straight to the jumper bay, you get in Jumper one and you lock it up tight unless you see each other, ok? You wont see me, I will open the door if I get there after you, she likes me best, otherwise all the jumpers will listen to who ever is inside over anyone outside. Do NOT worry about me, what ever it might look like, get to the jumper. If I'm not with you in five minutes of you both being there, you leave. Go to the Genii, they will protect you till I get there. Do not wait any longer, I will join you, sooner or later, just don’t leave the Genii without me, ok? I don’t want you going to the plant unprotected."

Rodney looked like he was about to argue but John shook his head solemnly.

"Don’t. We go straight to the armoury. Two corridors before we get there you two will split off, you will meet me two corridors past the armoury, then we will go straight to the transporter above the control room, then over to the jumper. You both with me?"

The plan was simple, so simple, not that it really worked out that easily, but they had the Life Signs Detector and the fact that nobody was actually looking for them. John did make a note to go mental at someone when this was all over because his codes still worked! He had only used it the first time to try and set a false trail but nobody was paying any attention, nobody had revoked his command status, it was a disgrace really, but handy. They were soon in the Jumper Bay, all fully armed and ready for anything. Or almost anything, they really hadn't expected to find Teyla and Ford in the jumper waiting for them, or the other three jumpers full of people and equipment, ready to follow them through the Gate. John stared at Teyla for a moment until she grinned and tilted her head toward the controls in an unmistakable 'get on with it'. Rodney and Radek were just as surprised the others were so organised, but they understood just how much loyalty John commanded from all their people, so neither of them could wipe the smirk off their face. John started up the jumper and looked at Rodney, needing some kind of reassurance he was doing the right thing, he actually got it from Teyla.

"John. We know you must have found the manufacturing plant you told us of, we know we need the ZPM we can get there, we know you will take us there, and bring us home. You 'are' a good leader John, much as you do not like the position, you do yourself, and us, proud."

John couldn’t have spoken if his life depended on it, so he didn’t try he nodded, forced back the fear that kind of faith in him caused, and resolved to carry on doing what he could, for whom he could, until he couldn't any more. He dialled the DHD and waited for confirmation from Atlantis that the gate was open and unshielded before asking her to open the doors and send them out, the four jumpers left in convoy, the Gate shutting as the last came through to the Genii home world. As soon as they were through John called Kolya. 

"Major Sheppard, you seem to be a little early, and on the wrong planet?"  
"Yeah, well, we seem to have had a bit of an issue. We kinda had to leave Atlantis."  
"Where are the rest of your people?"  
"Oh, not everyone! Just me, Rodney and Radek really, but a few folk decided to join us."  
"I am surprised there are not more then. I was under the impression your people followed you, not your figure head."

Teyla spoke up quietly but confidently.

"They do Kolya. But there are only so many jumpers, and we refuse to give up Atlantis. We are with John so he does no forget where the loyalty of his people lies, and to help him with an errand."  
"Ah. That is well. I wish you luck then, I take it you will let us know when we can continue our negotiations?"  
"Of course. We will let you know as soon as we do, this may take us some time. If you need us in the mean time leave a brown piece of cloth at the back of the gate we are leaving to, we will check as often as we can."  
"Very well. I hope we will speak soon John."  
"Yeah, as soon as we can, we'll get back to you."

Kolya signed off and John dialled an empty planet they had come across and they all left again. They completed a quick turn around once they were all through the second Gate and John finally dialled the address Atlantis had given him. They came through on a new planet and everyone was hoping the plant would be on the ground, not in space. 

Rodney had been watching John carefully for days so he noticed as he shuddered all over and then sprawled in his seat as he usually would, finally relaxing after days of tension, slipping back into the role of team leader in an instant, shaking off all his personal problems and getting on with the job of protecting his people. 

"Right, where are you? I should be able to feel you by now, where are you hiding? There you are! Hello baby, how ya doin? You been lonely out here on your own? Don’t you worry, I got ya, we wont leave you alone again. Come on baby, let me see you, don’t be shy."

Rodney looked out the front window at one of the least welcoming planets they had found so far. The jumpers sensors were telling him just how nasty it would be to spend too long out there unprotected, the radiation was just not healthy and it was messing with a lot of the sensor readings.

"You know this place will kill us quickly, right? The radiation out there is ridiculous!"  
"That's why she's so well shielded Rodney, aren't you beautiful?"  
"She's not a puppy Sheppard!"  
"I know that McKay! She is a lonely and tired baby girl though, aren't you?"  
"She's at least 10,000 years old!"  
"No she isn't. You weren't meant to be aware were you baby? No, but 10,000 years of no maintenance and all this radiation, well, you started to grow didn’t you baby? Yeah, now we're here to look after you, and take you back to Lantis. What's your name baby? Come on, you can tell me, what should I call you baby?"

Everyone in the jumper could see that John was listening to something, or someone that they couldn’t hear so they waited quietly, even Rodney for once.

"Oh no, that wont do, that’s just really bad, I can't call you 'Base 3176', that's just not gonna happen. Potentia Vis, how about Tia? That work for you baby? Can I call you Tia? Good, yeah, I like it too. Yeah, it is pretty. Like you? I don’t know, I can't se you yet, can I? Cause you're still hiding! Oh! Yeah, you are pretty! And it looks like you'll be coming back to Lantis with us when we get you all fixed up, make you shiny and new shall we?"

John continued to talk to the new base, Tia, as she shimmered into view and the others stared at her in awe, she really was beautiful, she was like a tiny replica of one of Atlantis towers, with the same beautiful and bright architecture, and there was no outward sign she had been abandoned for so long. They quickly moved in and started searching the building, just in case, to secure the Tower before setting their selves up and starting to work out what they would need to do to fix her. It was going to take a while, but they would get there.

************ 

Two days after they found Tia Rodney threw up his hands and demanded that John and Teyla go and hold their talks with the Genii, because he wanted them to bring back as many soldiers as they could to search Tia so that he could finally get on with his job of fixing her! 

So they did.

They took a jumper and flew to the space Gate, then on to the Genii home world. Just to make a nice change, everything actually went well, Cowan had been displaced, and disgraced, and the new leader, Hardin, was more than happy to ally with those in charge of the Ancestors technology. John was a little worried about the level of sincerity present, as were Teyla and Kolya, but they agreed that if anyone tried anything Kolya could just take over, or he could just bring all the men loyal to him to join them and leave the rest of them to do as they pleased. In the mean time they agreed to send Ladon and sixty of their men, with food, to search Tia and help with any security needs. Kolya had a long chat with Ladon before they left to collect the jumpers and ferry the men in, and reminded him of exactly why he was still alive, and not wolf chow. Ladon replied that he had already left him a report detailing everything he had been 'told' to do by Hardin, it was waiting for him on his desk and there was a copy in his pocket ready for Sheppard as soon as they were off planet. Kolya was pleased to learn that some were not as easily swayed as he had been at that age, and wished him well. By the end of the first day they had the control room level fully cleared, along with sleeping quarters, a mess hall and a recreation area on the floor below it, so Rodney was happy, he could start his own work at last, which was when he found out the plant didn’t just make ZPM, it also made Drones and a few other unexpected toys. They had an impromptu party to celebrate the amazing good fortune. John assigned four men to stay in the same room as Rodney at all times, it could have been considered paranoid, or favouritism, and maybe it was a little of both, but it was also practical and smart. Without Rodney they would take, possibly years, longer to fix Tia, which was longer before they got back to Atlantis, and again, without Rodney it would take possibly years longer to get her up to standard, if they ever managed it, so it was necessary to keep Rodney safe, it also let John pander to his own protective instincts, so it was all good. 

Ladon and the Genii were great company, they were good soldiers, though they could stand a little extra training, so John offered it, and Ladon gratefully accepted it, so every day a small group of the Genii would be sent to the recreation area to be taught by Sergeants Markham and Stackhouse, learning a few of the things they had been taught at home and by the Pegasus Galaxy, it was turning out to be a beautiful and productive friendship for everyone, and the two groups were soon so close it was hard to tell which were from Earth and which Genii. 

************

Elizabeth was panicking. Everyone knew she was panicking. Unfortunately it was Bates job to try and mitigate that panic, and stop anyone else from mutinying at the same time. He was not happy with his job right now, and it certainly was not in any brochure he had read before signing up for the marines. He still wasn’t sure if he was more mad at Sheppard for leaving, or leaving him behind! Bates was not a fan of Major Sheppard. He had worked with Colonel Sumner for a long time and liked and respected him as both a man and a CO, he knew his death wasn’t Sheppard's fault, he just happened to be the only one there in a position to offer mercy and had given it. He understood this now, after being sent off world with a team to try and find food or allies and found the Wraith instead. It was not a mission he cared to remember, though his nightmares wouldn’t let him forget. Only three of an eight man team made it home, and Weir refused to let anyone go through the Gate again. That was all very well and good, but they didn’t have unlimited food, which she had understood, so she had implemented short rationing, only scientists weren't trained for short rations, and his men could only work for so long without proper nutrition. An army marches on its stomach, that had been true since the dawn of time and would remain so until the end of the universe, and his men were on empty, with no refuge in sight. To make things just so much worse, because the thought of slowly starving to death wasn’t quite bad enough, one of the scientists had found a long range sensor, that showed three hive ships on a direct course, straight for them. 

He wasn’t sure if it was more curse or blessing, but the ships were just a little over two weeks out still, just enough time for everyone to really panic properly, but also long enough for them to try something, though nobody was quite sure if it was worth it. Dr Kavanagh had been looking through Dr McKay's files, though many had tried to stop him, but he had found the beginning of an idea for a High Compression Data Burst, they could open the Gate to Earth for about a second with the power they had available, and they could compress all the files, reports and everything they had learnt from Atlantis, and about the Wraith, and send it all to Earth, so at least their deaths would have some kind of meaning, it wasn’t much, but at least it was something. At least now they had a purpose, and an end date, they wouldn’t have to watch each other succumb to starvation, they could at least go out fighting. He had already made plans, every civilian would be issued a sidearm, and a clip, the day the Wraith arrived, so at least they had the option to go out fast, and the men had already been briefed, anyone caught by a Wraith was to be given the same mercy as Colonel Sumner, especially the civvies, they weren't cut out for this kind of shit like the men were, brave as they had all proven their selves to be. 

Bates was not a man who had ever believed in God, but he prayed, every night, to anyone that might hear, for a miracle.

************

John reached the Gate with a group of marines not ten minutes after Tia had warned them it had opened and went stiff as he caught the scent of another wolf. He quickly pulled his top off as he shifted, shaking the rest of his clothes off as soon as he was on four feet. He carefully scented the air as one of the men picked up his clothes, until he got a direction and followed it, barking back at the others to follow him, though he soon lost them. As he got close to the fresh scent of the other animal John stopped, tipped his head back and howled, long and loud and low, calling his own pack to him and warning off the new beta in his territory. The other wolf howled back and he heard no aggression from him, just curiosity and hope, so he called back, inviting him to join him, calling him closer. The black wolf slipped from the shadows a few minutes later, carefully coming into the clearing John was stood in, not aggressive but not submissive either, he came in as an equal, waiting to see what he found. John stood still waiting for a moment, he didn’t want to come across as aggressive, but he couldn’t submit to this new wolf either, though he was no Alpha he did lead his pack, and he couldn’t let another beta take them from him, not without a hell of a fight anyway. The black wolf could smell others on John, even from a distance, especially 'Mate', he knew John would never submit quietly when it would put his mate and pack under the control of another wolf, he was also tired, and in no position to lead anyone, so he tipped his head down and to the side, ears flat, tail down, offering his throat to John. John only hesitated for a moment, he didn’t want more responsibility but he couldn’t refuse the offer either, he would always accept others into his pack if they asked, and this was the first wolf that had ever offered him their throat. He stepped forward calmly and took the offered throat, biting down just enough to be felt but not draw blood, then he released him and started sniffing and licking him, getting to know the new wolf intimately, making him part of the pack. The black wolf stood quietly for a long while, letting John do anything he wanted, until John licked his face and yipped at him playfully, wagging his tail and bouncing around him, calling him to play. 

It was all well and good playing with the marines, it was great fun and good exercise and prepared the humans to work with him in the field, but it was nothing like playing with another of his own kind, something he hadn't been allowed since his mother died. John was pretty much in heaven right now, bouncing around and chewing on each others ears, pouncing each other and just acting like pups. Then his marines finally caught up. The black wolf went still when he first heard them coming, then he started to run away until John growled at him to stay, he yipped back trying to warn him but John wouldn’t let him run. When the men joined them they all stood very still as John huffed at them, bouncing to them so he could rub his face over each of them in turn, showing the new wolf they were his, they were pack. The black wolf slowly came closer and sniffed each of the marines in turn, accepting them. 

"We should get back to Tia Sir, the Doc keeps reminding us it's not healthy out here."

John looked at Sergeant Stackhouse and yipped before letting his tongue loll out of his mouth and crossing his eyes. The marines laughed while the new wolf watched curiously.

"Yeah, I know, but we get it in the neck more than you do, with no fringe benefits, as he keeps saying, it’s a bitch getting your fur clean. I take it your new friend is coming with us?"

John yipped again, nosed the black wolf and ran toward Tia, coming back moments later when they didn’t immediately follow. The black wolf chuffed then followed him, soon bouncing along playfully while the marines started making their way back in their own time. John only got a little way ahead before he turned and ran back, chuffing and nipping at their heals until they laughingly broke into a run too, all of them running hell for leather back to Tia. 

As soon as they got back to the safety of Tia's shields John shifted and turned to his new pack mate, tipping his head and studying him, letting him lean against his leg comfortably, just waiting for him to shift. Rodney joined them as soon as they got back, walking up to John and looking at his new friend.

"Huh, another one. How many lost puppies am I supposed to take in exactly?"

The black wolf didn’t really appreciate that, growling at him. Rodney snorted and cuffed him around the head carelessly, not even slightly intimidated by the big teeth. The wolf reared back in shock at the lack of fear and stared at him in shock. Rodney smirked.

"Don’t think you're scary just cause you're fluffy and got big teeth, you're not. I've seen scarier Pomeranians, get over your self, just remember that without me you'd probably all die and show a little respect. Now shift, we'll need to find you clothes and I can't tell your size like this. Oh, and a name, we need a name, what are you waiting for?"

The black wolf looked at John for a moment, took in the way he was leaning into the man that his nose was telling him was his lover, and chuffed before shifting. 

He was huge!

He stood at 6'4" with long black dreadlocks and soulful deep brown eyes, his skin was café au lait and surprisingly clean with a scruffy beard, and every single muscle was clearly defined, on a body the Greek gods would be jealous of. John had a very slim build, and well defined but not obvious muscles like a swimmer, but the new guy was built like a runner, everything about him was solid, massive and right 'there', and it was obviously all natural, not over done like a body builder. John could honestly admit, without shame, that he was a little intimidated, and could have been jealous if Rodney hadn't automatically pulled him closer as soon as the man moved, shifting on his feet slightly to get comfortable on two legs again.

"Well? What's your name? Or do I just call you Conan?"

The man tipped his head quizzically at that.

"Ronan Dex, not Conan."  
"Holy shit! What are the odds? Never mind, I'm Dr Rodney McKay."  
"John, Major John Sheppard. I lead the pack with Rodney. Teyla and Ford are on my usual team but we're kinda just waiting around and keeping the brains in coffee at the moment while they fix Tia, that's the outpost we're in, her name's Tia."

Ronan just watched them quietly for a while before he offered a small smile to Rodney, tipping his head and offering his throat like he had for John. Just like he had with John, Rodney didn’t notice. John raised his eyebrows and shrugged in a 'what can you do?' expression when Ronan looked at him, he would explain it later but right now Ronan would just have to accept that was Rodney, an oblivious pain in the ass they couldn’t live without. Then Rodney got bored.

"Yes, yes, sorted now, we have work to do you know, we have to get this finished some time. You can shift back for now, no need to make the marines jealous, just stay furry until someone finds you some clothes. I don’t know why you don’t have your own, you should be old enough to dress your self by now."  
"Rodney! Why don’t you get back to what you were doing while I take care of Ronan?"

Rodney narrowed his eyes at the dismissal.

"Yes, well, don’t plan on taking care of him too well without me, you can both wait a few hours, it wont kill you."

And with that he turned and stormed back to whatever he had been fixing before they got back. John shook his head in disbelief as everyone around them went bright red and wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone else, possibly ever again. John didn’t know why some people had such a problem with sexuality and talking about it, but he knew it would do his career no good if people got homophobic, or just objected to his Lycan sensibilities, which wouldn’t say no to much from Pack. Ronan was now Pack, Rodney was Pack, Radek was too but he had made it clear he had no interest in sharing their bed, but if Ronan wanted to he would be welcomed with open arms. To be fair, John saw almost the whole expedition and now Ladon's men as Pack, and he wouldn’t have refused any of the men had they asked, still wouldn’t if Rodney was ok with it, it was just a Pack thing, only the Alpha pair could have young so it didn’t matter who the others slept with, it was only sex, just another way of strengthening Pack ties and keeping everyone healthy and happy. He also understood most humans wouldn’t see it that way, and some would strenuously object to it. He looked at Ronan and gave him that same 'what can you do?' look.

"Come on, lets get you some food and a shower, should check you out in the infirmary first I suppose."

Ronan followed him as he started walking toward the infirmary, waiting until they were alone before he spoke quietly.

"I can't stay long, they'll find you if I do."  
"Who?"  
"The Wraith. They put a tracker in me, set me free, then tried to catch me. I'm a Runner."  
"That sucks. Tia, can you see this tracker? Good, yeah, be there in a sec, thanks baby."

Ronan looked at John like he'd lost his mind, John just grinned.

"That's Tia, she can't speak properly yet, there's too much damage to her systems, that's what we're trying to fix, but she speaks in my head, Rodney can explain it, it's genetics, I just know I hear her and most people don’t. Anyway, she knows where your tracker is and if we go to the infirmary she can shut it down. She can't get it out, but Carson probably will when we get back to Atlantis, but at least they wont be able to track you. Now come on, we can get that sorted and check you over, then food and a shower."

Ronan followed John, hopeful for the first time in over six years. 

It only took a few moments for Tia to run scans over Ronan and decide that, other than being a little undernourished and having a tracker in his back, he was surprisingly healthy. She scrambled the tracker so it couldn’t work and sent them on their way, glad that her Primus was happy and had a new friend the same as him. John lead the way to the mess and showed Ronan how to use MRE's. Ronan quickly finished off his fourth MRE while John sat with him, telling him about the others in the Tower and those they had left behind on Atlantis, explaining where they had come from and everything that had happened so far. Ronan was mostly silent, just eating with the occasional grunt of astonishment or encouragement, until he had finally had his fill. They stayed there for a while just letting his food settle before John led him to the room he was sharing with Rodney and took him into the shower. 

Ronan looked at the shower controls and raised his eyebrows at John.

"Yeah, most people get confused at first. It just works for me, so I never had to work it out. Give me a sec."

John didn’t see the point in messing about, so he stripped off and pulled Ronan into the shower with him, the water starting automatically from most of the heads, all at just the right temperature, keeping them both fully covered so nobody got cold, just like it did when he and Rodney shared a shower. He let them both soak in the warmth for a while, chuckling at Ronan's groan of satisfaction, before he picked up a sponge type thing and the soap and started washing Ronan. Ronan groaned a lot more after that, especially when John finished with his top half and pushed him against the wall, knocking his feet apart so he could reach everything when he went to his knees to finish washing him, from the feet up. John was very thorough, just like he was with Rodney, only Ronan spread his legs wider and groaned louder when he pushed a soapy finger inside him, Rodney usually just raised an eyebrow repressively until he pulled out and went back to playing with his cock instead, but Ronan was loving it, and not shy about showing it. John smiled up at him and leant forward to suck the tip of his cock at the same time as he pushed a second finger in hard, and Ronan howled as he came down his throat. When he got his breath back Ronan smirked down at John.

"Thought he said not to take care of me too well?"  
"That was too well? You'll never survive Rodney if that was too much."  
"Funny."  
"I thought so. You gonna let me wash your hair? I can't wait to get my hands on it. Then you can shift and I'll wash your coat too."  
"You really like the whole cleaning thing, don’t you?"  
"Yeah, I do. Grooming was always a big thing with my mom, since she died I haven't had anyone, so now I make the most of it, Rodney likes it, it works for his ego, and he loves the blow jobs."  
"Yeah, I can understand that. Might be my new favourite thing."  
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up and kneel down, you're too damn tall."

Ronan smirked at him and leant in to kiss him quickly before kneeling at his feet and closing his eyes, just relaxing and waiting for John to wash his hair. John truly did enjoy his self, he loved washing Rodney's hair too, and he couldn’t help cataloguing the differences between the two, besides the obvious difference in amounts. Ronan's hair was a lot softer than it looked but still had nothing on Rodney's downy fluff. He took his time cleaning and rinsing Ronan's hair thoroughly before telling him to shift and starting over. It really was a treat for John, as well as Ronan, Rodney would never stay in the shower long enough for John to be this thorough and Ronan had been alone for over six years, and nobody had cared for him like this in his life, he was more than happy to let John play to his hearts content. 

By the time they got out of the shower they were both sparklingly clean, and the bathroom was soaked from Ronan shaking his self while on four legs and dripping wet. They went into the bedroom to dry off and John got dressed before going to search for something for Ronan to wear. A quick call on the radio found that the men had sorted it out their selves and had a pile of clothes ready for him in the break room. He got the clothes back to Ronan and then took him to find Rodney who was still hard at work with the other scientists in the main control room. Rodney looked up at them after a while, looked back at what he was doing, then looked back up.

"I thought I said 'not' too well."  
"It wasn’t too much for him."

John smirked at him and Ronan worried for a moment, until Rodney grinned at them both.

"Oh this is gonna be fun! Anyway, no time right now, we're not ready for a break yet, I still have a few good hours left before they mutiny, so go eat or play or something, not that! Any more of that without me and you'll both be sleeping on the couch, separately, so behave. We'll have to get new quarters when we go back to Atlantis anyway, so we can find something big enough for all of us. I take it you mutts will want to stay together? Radek's been giving me lessons, so I better be right or he's been playing me, and I don’t want to have to kill him."  
"He's right Rodney, don’t worry, you don’t have to kill him for this. We'll see you when you finish ok? In our quarters."  
"Yes, yes, go on then, get out of the way, I have to keep the minions working or they all think they can stop!"

John shook his head as a few of the 'minions' sighed deeply, obviously wondering why they had come again, and trying not to remind their selves it was as much about self preservation as it was loyalty to Rodney. He might be an obnoxious bastard at times, but he did care about them and he would do anything to keep them all alive, so they were all more than happy to return the favour. John bumped shoulders with Rodney before doing the same to Ronan and leading him back out of the room.

"How'd he know?"  
"He says I have a 'blowjob smile', whatever that is, and he's the one I normally get it with, and we've both showered, doesn’t take a genius." 

Ronan looked at him carefully for a moment before nodding and smiling his self.

"Yeah, I see it."

John looked at him quizzically.

"Blowjob smile, definitely."

John chuckled at the smug little smirk on Ronan's face at that.

"Don’t know why you're so smug, you just stood there, I did all the work."  
"Work, you enjoy it too much to call it work. And I was enough to put that smile on your face."  
"Everyone already saw it was more than enough! Hell, who wouldn’t enjoy that? Besides, we get to play with Rodney later, he's always wound up after working on something this important, he gets all alpha, it's great!"  
"Yeah, what's up with that? I figured he was your Alpha."  
"Nah, not so much. He's pretty oblivious despite Radek trying his best. He understands that sex is sex, that an Alpha could come in and take over from me, and that we can play with anyone in the pack, but he hasn’t figured out he would have 'been' that Alpha if he'd just taken the offer, he's got it stuck in his head it has to be another wolf. Or he might know exactly what he's done and just not want to rule the pack, you never know with Rodney, plenty of times he's acted completely oblivious only come to find he knew, just didn’t think it was important enough to do anything about, or wasn’t his place to deal with it, he's strange like that."  
"Yeah. Good in bed?"  
"Oh hell yeah! I've never met an Alpha I wasn’t related to, but I can't imagine it would be any better than Rodney, he just pins you down and takes exactly what he wants, I can't wait to watch him take you."

John shivered in anticipation and Ronan considered him carefully, either John was really easily pleased or he was in for a hell of a night, he just hoped it was the latter. 

He soon found out it was.

John spent the rest of the time waiting for Rodney writing up the reports he still felt he had to keep up, and explaining them, the need for them, and whom he was sending them back to, to Ronan. Eventually he got a call from Rodney telling them to meet him in the mess. They made their way there and worked their way through a meal, or several for Ronan, while Rodney caught John up on their progress and let him know it would probably be three more weeks before they were ready to fly Tia back to Atlantis, before making one last circuit of the tower and signing off duty, handing over to Ford and Teyla and making their way back to their room.

John wasn’t wrong about Rodney, as soon as they got into their room he pinned John against the wall and plundered his mouth, striping both their clothes off in the process, once he had him sufficiently limp-noodle-like he pulled back and smiled at him, then kissed the tip of his nose and pulled back.

"Sit in the chair John. You can watch, you don’t touch your self, understood?"  
"Yes Rodney."

John was grinning dopily, his cock was hard as a rock and the rest of him limp as an overcooked noodle, as he pored his self into the chair and settled in to watch. Ronan was also hard, and panting a little after watching that display, so when Rodney stalked him he pressed back against the wall subconsciously, not trying to escape, just needing something to keep him upright. Rodney didn’t waste any time leaning in and kissing Ronan senseless like he had John, stripping him off too before pulling back and leading him to the bed.

"You ok here?"

Ronan looked at Rodney like he'd lost his mind, and he was actually wondering if he had. Rodney shook his head.

"I don’t mess about with consent, you know exactly where this is going, I am going to fuck you through the mattress, so you tell me now if that's what you want, because I stop right here until you say it, I wont have any confusion later."

Ronan almost made a joke about their relative size and just how anyone thought Rodney would have a hope in hell of doing anything to him that he didn’t completely agree with, but he figured, with the way he had worded it, that there was a reason, somewhere in Rodney's past, for him being so specific, so he decided not to waste any more time and just told him what he needed to hear.

"Fuck me. Please."

Rodney smiled at that.

"With pleasure. Now be a good boy, lay down and spread em."

Ronan chuckled but did as he was told, throwing his self on the bed and spreading his legs as far as he could, displaying his self for Rodney. Rodney took full advantage of the display for a moment, then he got impatient and grabbed the oil from beside the bed and pored it over Ronan's crotch, spreading it everywhere. He didn’t take any longer than he had to sliding his first finger inside Ronan, smearing his insides with the oil, then pushed a second in with it as soon as he could manage it. Ronan grunted at the stretch, it had been a very long time since he had had any kind of sex, and longer still since anyone had played with his ass with any kind of intent. To his surprise Rodney slowed down at his grunt, realising straight away that he wasn’t as happy as he could be. He took his time after that, slowly preparing Ronan, stretching him out almost too slowly, just on the right side of tormenting. Ronan eventually noticed, when his brain randomly fired a little sense his way, that Rodney was playing his body like a finely tuned instrument, he had gauged his reactions during the first few minutes and played him perfectly ever since, driving his body closer and closer to the edge but never enough that it was uncomfortable, the man was even better than John had made out. 

Eventually Rodney decide he was ready for him and pulled his fingers slowly out of his body, quickly replacing them with his cock, pushing in slowly, carefully, almost gently, which Ronan had never experienced before, and was soon filling him completely, leaving them both gasping for breath and John panting on the chair, now literally sitting on his hands to stop him touching his self. Ronan knew he couldn’t last long once Rodney was finally inside him, but he didn’t count on Rodney dragging him to the edge of climax and then yanking him back, several times, before he showed a little mercy and started speeding up, moving steadily faster until he was pounding Ronan into the mattress and he was loving every second of it. Ronan came with a yell, cum spreading between their bodies as Rodney continued to pound him with a ferocious determination before finally going still and Ronan felt his cock pulsing as he came. Rodney sighed as he rolled off of Ronan, puling out slowly and grinning at his grunt of displeasure as he did so. He patted him on the shoulder as he lay down beside him.

"Breath Ronan, just breath."

Ronan yelped and Rodney sat up so fast his head span, only to find John laid out between Ronan's legs, pushing them up and apart so he could lick him clean.

"Oh you filthy bastard! That has got to be the hottest thing I have ever seen! I think Ronan's enjoying it too, you know, I might let you try that on me, if it feels half as good as it looks I might let you try it often. Are you done yet? John?"

John just whined which made Ronan yelp again and Rodney watched the shudders ripple through his body as he came again, on John's tongue, then started squirming away from him. John reluctantly pulled away from him, whining again as he licked the rest of him clean. Rodney ruffled his hair and smirked at him when he finally finished.

"You really do have an oral fixation. If I didn’t gain so much pleasure from it I'd send you to Heightmeyer, as it is, get over here and let me see if that's as fun as it looks."

John whined again, clambering over Ronan to get between Rodney's legs as fast as he could, licking his cock and balls clean slowly, relishing every moment as he savoured the flavours of both his favourite people mixed up together. Eventually he decided Rodney was clean enough so he slowly moved further back and down, gently lapping at Rodney's hole, loving the feel of the different textures on his sensitive tongue, the explosion of flavours and scents across his palate, it was the only thing better than a blowjob as far as John was concerned, and it was fun to be on the receiving end too. It wasn’t long before Rodney was moaning and rocking up into the air, then he suddenly pulled John up, kissing him hard and deep while shoving him around and lining him up, pulling him down on his aching cock harshly, dragging a muffled yell out of John as he was slammed into. Ronon watched John's face carefully, that had sounded more pained than pleasure, and though he didn’t know them well he was sure Rodney wouldn’t hurt John on purpose, but he didn’t want to ignore it just in case it was an accident and Rodney was just too far gone to pay enough attention. Turned out he needn't have worried, John threw back his head and howled as Rodney flipped them and pounded his lover into the bed, slamming their hips together so hard the bed shock. Ronan had to admire Rodney, the man had unbelievable stamina, after the pounding he had just given him, to then go on and repeat the performance with John was pretty amazing. John evidently though so too, and said as much, repeatedly, with much passion interspersed with whines, grunts and yelps as he was fucked into the bed hard and fast until he howled again and came all over his self. Rodney kept pounding him through the aftershocks until he was a limp mess on the bed, whining continuously and watching Rodney adoringly, until eventually Rodney went stiff for a long moment then shuddered as he came inside John, still watching his lovers eyes, gently leaning down and kissing him, almost chastely, on the lips then each eyelid before slowly pulling back as his cock softened and slipped out.

Ronan could have felt like an outsider as he watched them, he could have felt out of place, like an intruder, they were so caught up in each other, but he didn’t. It was obvious that John was head over heals gone on Rodney, adored him, would do anything for him, and Rodney obviously felt as strongly for John, even if he showed it differently, but he still didn’t feel unwelcome or intrusive, he felt right at home, and knew he always would. Like John had said, Rodney wasn’t their Alpha, but he was theirs, and they were his, for the first time in over seven years he had someone of his own, something of his own, a place to call home and people to call Pack, and may the gods help any that tried to take any of it away from him, he had lost everything once, he would fight a hundred times harder to stop it happening again.

************

The only two things they really had to make a priority were engines and the production facilities, the engines were well in hand and it turned out the production line wasn’t broken, as soon as they asked Tia about it she told them where to find the resources they needed and they sent out teams to collect them and got on with making as many ZPM and Drones as they could, the real beauty being that, though they could only make one ZPM at a time, it only took 48 hours to make one, and the Drones were so quick and easy they soon had to stop because of lack of storage space, so they soon had a hell of stock pile of both ready for use.

************ 

"You were wrong."  
"What? What are you jabbering about Sheppard?"  
"You were wrong."  
"Yes, you already said that, now explain! If you can find enough brain cells under that hair to do so."  
"You said the repairs would take three weeks."  
"And they only took two."  
"Exactly, you were wrong."  
"I was not wrong you mongrel! I was making a conservative estimate!"  
"You were wrong."  
"I underestimated my own brilliance and ability to herd minions!"  
"You were wrong."  
"Major!"  
"Yes Dr McKay?"  
"Shut up!"  
"But you were wrong weren't you?"  
"I wont be wrong when I say if you don’t shut up and drop this now you will be sleeping on the couch for a week!"  
"Ok."  
"What?"  
"I said ok."  
"As easy as that? No way, you never give up that easily! What are you planning? Ronan! What is he planning?"  
"Huh?"  
"What is he planning Ronan!?! You two are joined at the hip lately, you know everything he does, or is planning to do, so what is he planning?"  
"I dunno."  
"What?"  
"You need a check on your ears Doc? I said I dunno."  
"You always know! You two are in it together aren't you? You're planning something together! What is it? Tell me now or you'll both be on the couch! Separately!"

John and Ronan grinned at each other and looked back to Rodney.

"I don’t know what you mean Rodney."  
"Don’t give me that mutt! That's it, no sex for either of you!"  
"But Rodney, don’t you love us?"

John and Ronan stepped closer to Rodney, surrounding him, both sniffing his neck, rubbing against him, licking him and generally sucking up in a canine fashion. Rodney was made of sterner stuff than that though, so he pushed them both away and backed up away from them. The two wolves looked at each other and shifted. Rodney took one look at them shaking their clothes off and started backing away from them down the corridor, he knew there was no point in running but felt he had to put some distance between them and him as quickly as possible. Once they were free of clothes the two of them started stalking him, prowling forward slowly, one step at a time, heads down, tails out straight behind them, moving in unison, like a well practiced dance. Rodney gulped and almost turned and ran but knew it would be the stupidest thing he had ever done in his life, so he managed not to. He did scream when they both suddenly pounced though, which drew the attention of every person within hearing, which was a lot, and they all ran to his rescue as quickly as possible, only to find him pinned to the floor by two overgrown mutts, tails wagging, yipping like they'd lost their minds and licking him to death! Rodney was rolling on the floor, tears flooding from his eyes as he laughed harder than he could ever remember, two tongues licking and noses tickling him everywhere, unable to breath he was laughing so hard. And pretty much everyone on the base was there to see it. To be fair, every person there was uplifted after seeing it, hearing Rodney laughing in true and honest fun, seeing John and Ronan enjoying their selves like they were, it made everyone feel lighter, and with all the hard work they had done over the last two months, the preparations to return to Atlantis and not knowing how they would be received, they all needed it. Rodney didn’t really see it that way. Not at first anyway. John and Ronon slept on the floor in wolf form that night, it would have been longer, but John had to fly Tia home the next day, two months after they had left, and then everything went to hell. 

*************

They worked out it was going to take the best part of eleven hours to fly Tia back to Atlantis with her newly repaired and untested hyper-drive, it would have been impossible without it so they had kind of 'fixed' it but couldn’t push it too fast, so John settled in for a long drive. Rodney set his self and Ronan up in the room with him to keep him company and make sure everything worked as it was supposed to through out the entire journey. He spent most of the first four hours talking about what he was going to do when they got back, then John took his first break and they sat in orbit of a barren planet for a couple of hours while he ate and moved around for a while. Rodney spent the second four hours explaining how he was going to use what he had learnt with Tia to help Lantis, how he would finish over hauling all of Tia's systems once he had more engineers, and how he was going to figure out Lantis internal security, because Tia had cameras 'everywhere', they recorded everything 24/7 and she had plenty of room in her servers because she had agreed when John suggested she might want to record over the last 10,000 years worth of her own empty halls. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the security feeds in Atlantis! Apparently the Ancients had no sense of privacy or problems being recorded 'all' the time! Though it did mean he got to watch John and Ronan's first shower together, so he didn’t mind, it just meant he would have to make sure a very limited number of people had access to those servers, like him, John and Radek limited, the Tau'ri were much nosier, and more likely to use such evidence for blackmail than the Ancients apparently, which he would not allow. John decided his second break, which everyone had insisted on because they didn’t know what they would find when they got to Atlantis and needed him fresh and ready for anything when they did, that Rodney had to shut up, so he pulled his trousers down and sucked his brains out through his cock, or that's how Rodney described it later. Ronan thought this was a great plan and did the same to John, right before he fucked him slow and gentle, he still had to sit for hours after. 

About twenty minutes after they got within sensor range of Atlantis Tia started screaming, or that’s how it felt to John. 

"Rodney! Wraith Hives! Three inbound, they'll hit about three hours after we do! Get everyone ready. Tia, open communications with Atlantis, make sure she doesn’t let anyone fire on us, then patch me through to the command room."

Tia didn’t bother answering, she just got the job done.

"Unknown ship, this is Atlantis City, please identify your self."  
"That you Chuck? This is Major Sheppard bringing Tia home, and we bought presents! Couldn’t find any wine so I thought a few ZPM and Drones would make up for it."

John actually heard the cheering in the background before Chuck responded. 

"Thank God you're back Sir! There are three Wraith ships heading for us, we have practically no power left since the Data Burst back to Earth and we haven't seen Dr Weir since yesterday. Sergeant Bates is holding it together, but we really need you Sir."  
"Breath Chuck. We're about thirty minutes out from you, three hours ahead of the Wraith, plenty of time. Where's Bates now?"  
"He's on his way Sir, he's been in the armoury handing out ammo, he made sure everyone was armed Sir, we weren't gonna give in Sir."  
"I never doubted it Chuck, none of us would have come here if we were ready to roll over!"  
"Sir! Is it really you?"  
"The one and only Bates, what took you so long? You reading again?"  
"Yes Sir, thought I'd read for a bit, then take a stroll around the west pier, it's pretty this time of day."  
"I had heard that, but if I could just pry you away from that plan, how about you get all our people in the central tower? It's the easiest place to keep everyone together."

He didn’t say it was the easiest place to defend or that they couldn’t risk loosing control of the Gate, but Bates knew all that already.

"Done Sir. We've made sure everyone is as close to the control room as possible and fully armed, all the ammo has been shared out, and the C4 and other toys have been put safe in the Gate room."

Bates didn’t say that the 'safe' place was rigged ready to blow the Gate, but he didn’t have to.

"Well done Sergeant, couldn’t have planned better myself. So, other than the unexpected guests, how's everyone doing down there?"  
"Not so bad now Sir, I've given everyone as much as they can eat, didn’t seem worth worrying about rations now."  
"No, I don’t suppose it did. Not to worry, we found a few friends, they supplied dinner. Talking of friends, I made a new friend! He is actually bigger and fluffier than me!"  
"Another Lycan Sir?"  
"Yup! But he's a teddy bear really."  
"I don’t know what that is but I don’t like the tone Sheppard."  
"Ah, Ro! I only say it with love!"  
"A teddy bear…"  
"Acht! I think that explanation can wait till later don’t you Rodney? Little busy right now, why don’t you go and finish preparing, stuff."

Rodney laughed at John but he did drag Ronan out to the control room, while starting to explain exactly what a teddy bear was and it's long and protracted history. John grinned at them as they left before sobering quickly. 

"Bates, we have a store of ZPM's and Drones with us, so as soon as we get to you, in about half an hour, we can set you up with a full compliment, they will never get through the shields, and if all else fails, we can loose them in hyperspace, if we jump around a bit and change trajectory a few times they'll never find us. How do you guys feel about a little trip back to Earth?"

John was a Beta, he wasn’t a leader and he never would be, didn’t pretend to be, but he knew how to inspire people, he knew you had to keep your peoples spirits up, and he knew the promise of 'home' would do that for a lot of them, and the promise of safety would do it for all of them, and between the shields and Earth, they really would feel safe. They really would 'be' safe, there was nothing in the Milky Way that could touch Ancient tech, he had read enough of the SGC's reports to know that, and with a full compliment of ZPM's and plenty more whenever they needed them, they would be untouchable and able to help Earth in terms of power. He wondered for just a moment if they could sell the ZPM's to Earth for the animals, plants and other resources they would need to be truly self sufficient in Pegasus, then dismissed it, even as powerful as they were, he could never threaten Earth, and he couldn’t withhold something as basic and significant as the ZPM now that they had an unending supply. He dragged him mind back to the problem at hand, keeping Atlantis and her people safe so they had the opportunity to get back to Earth and do all those things they had been dreaming about for the last year. John asked Tia if she could give him any more speed, without hurting her self, and he felt her glee as she jumped forward, like a filly out of the starting gate, which was oddly appropriate in the circumstances. 

"Bates, Chuck, Tia just got her second wind, new ETA about five minutes, put the coffee on boys, we have scientists in need of caffeine."  
"You know we ran out of caffeine about a month after we got here right? And we ran out of the Athosian tea last week, Dr Weir wouldn’t authorise trips to the mainland."

John paused for a moment at Bates reply, Weir had apparently not only banned Gate travel and rationed the food supplies but also stopped them going to the mainland, where they had known allies, with food supplies they could have shared, and wild animals they could have sent out hunting parties for, and the tea the scientists had been relying on for caffeine. It made no sense, but then, not a lot she had done since finding out he was a Lycan had made sense to him, so what was the difference. The main difference was that he hadn't been there to act as buffer for his people, to protect them from her more extreme ideas. Most of her ideas would have looked perfect on paper, unfortunately that didn’t always translate well to reality, just because it looked good didn’t mean that he couldn’t see a million and one reasons it would never work, or would fall apart half way through or just wouldn’t give her the results she expected, and that was his job, as Beta, to run interference, to give the Alpha a second opinion, and to advise them on anything he might know that they didn’t. Not every Alpha was a tactical genius, and though he didn’t see it, John was, it was why he had been promoted to Major despite his best intentions, and what would have kept him going if not for one day's bad luck and an ass of a CO that hated being questioned.

"Right, I knew that! I was just testing you, making sure you were listening!"  
"Of course Sir!"  
"Yup, and you passed, congratulations. Now, we are about to pull out of Hyper Drive, so don’t go using us as target practice, we just got Tia fixed up, a little, so don’t ding her or I'll let Rodney deal with you."  
"You wouldn't! How could you threaten a poor lowly Sergeant with such horror?"  
"Poor lowly Sergeant, right! Keep it up and I'll ask him to write your annual review."  
"Now that's just low Sir. We have you on sensors, Sir, and a fine sight you make too. Can you dock?"  
"Yup, Tia already sent you a flight path, we are heading for the South pier, she and Atlantis have been chatting and have it all figured out, she just told me something along the lines of 'if you want it done right you have to do it your self', which is fair enough."  
"Saves us trying to figure it out. I can see you through the South window Sir, and can I say Tia is a very pretty Lady?"  
"Oh you certainly can Sergeant, and she is practically blushing right now, congratulations, you have my baby's seal of approval, piss her off and you have both of us to deal with."  
"I would never get on the wrong side of a Lady Sir, it never ends well for anyone."  
"Quite right Sergeant, and the same goes for Scientists. I'm bringing three ZedPM's to the main power room now, if anyone gets in my way let alone tries to stop me I will have Ronan bite them, hard!"  
"Dr McKay?"  
"Who else would I be?"  
"Oh there is only one of you Doc. Everyone watch out for the Doc and get him where he needs to be, I want these shields up and running an hour ago!"

John let out a relieved sigh that Ronan was going to be with Rodney when he couldn’t be there his self, he knew he would be protected. Now they were docked it was time to head to the control room and decide what they were going to do about the Wraith. In minutes John was in the control room, waiting for Rodney to join them once he got the ZPM's installed, talking with Bates, more candidly now they weren't on an open channel.

"Where is she?"  
"Sensors say there is someone alive in her room, and everyone else is accounted for, so we're pretty sure it's her. I don’t know what went wrong Sir."  
"She found out about me. I should have never let her find out."  
"From what everyone heard, you saved her and the Doc, made new allies, and kept Atlantis in our hands and one piece, I don’t think you had much choice Sir."  
"I should have found another way. Talking of allies, there are sixty Genii on Tia, they all agreed to stay there for now as we didn’t want any misunderstandings, but they have the food and I want everyone in the main Tower before the Wraith get here. I think the easiest answer to the Wraith issue is not to be here when they arrive, we have the power to spare now, we can leave this system, but we have to get the Athosians here first. Which will be easiest if we move closer to the mainland, we can ferry them in quicker, bring more of their stuff, but we only have a few hours before they get in sensor range and I want to be gone half hour before that, just in case. Which gives us two and a half hours. Any objections or better ideas before I head to the chair to get us moving?"  
"No Sir, sounds like the best idea I heard in a long time."

John smiled, then grinned when he spotted Rodney and Ronan hurrying up the stairs to them.

"All set?"  
"Would I be here if it wasn’t? Why aren't you in the chair yet? What are we doing next?"  
"Rodney! I can't answer until you let me! We going to get the Athosians, then everyone is moving to the command tower, just in case, then we are gonna blow this pop stand, go back to Earth for a visit, see were we go from there."  
"Are you really going back to Earth? What if they…"  
"Rodney! We can deal with everything else once we have everyone safe, ok?"

Rodney looked at him carefully for a while, then nodded, it was something to worry about later, and he would, but not right now.

"Come on then, what are you waiting for? Lets go before they get here."  
"We have to pick up the Athosians first Rodney, we can't leave them here with the Wraith on the way."  
"I know that, I assume you are going to take the city closer so we can get them faster, so hurry up, those three hours are going to disappear quickly moving all their stuff, because we aren't coming back here after we've been to Earth. We need to find a nice temperate planet on the edge of the Galaxy closest to the Milky Way without it's own Gate, as far away from the Wraith as possible when we come back to kill them all."

John raise his eyebrows at that, it was a little blood thirsty for Rodney, though it was something he had thought about long and hard his self, but he would wonder about that later.

"Right. Let's head for the Chair then, you can brief Teyla while I fly."

Rodney huffed and started muttering about being left with all the worst jobs, just as John expected, while they started walking.

"Sergeant, if you could continue with the plans you already had set, just in case, and get every jumper pilot we have to the jumper bay, we can all take it in shifts if necessary, and I want you to prepare for the Athosians, pick a storage room somewhere and get all their stuff in, then get them all settled within the Tower with the Genii and everyone else."  
"Consider it done Sir."  
"I do Sergeant."

Bates practically beamed at him, at the open and obvious vote of confidence, and trust, considering how well they hadn't got on in the beginning, snapped off a sharp salute and turned on his heal to get the job done. John saluted back and grinned as he watched him leave. Rodney shook his head and grabbed his arm to pull him along faster, he wanted this whole debacle over with as soon as humanly possible. Which turned out to be quite quick. Teyla and Ford joined them in the Chair room just after John had started lifting them out of the sea, Teyla was worried her people wouldn’t be able to move everything fast enough, that they would be caught by the Wraith and Rodney assured her they would leave their things behind before they put the City at risk like that. Teyla didn’t find that as comforting as Rodney had thought she would, he also didn’t understand why Ronan and Ford were staring at him.

"What?"  
"You'd leave their stuff, the few things they have managed to hold on to over the last year, the few remaining reminders of their lost home and loved ones?"  
"Yeah, things can be replaced, people can't!"  
"Right."  
"Rodney, I'll explain later, let's not make them leave anything behind if we can help it yeah? And guys, you know what he meant, quit giving him a hard time."  
"Sorry Sir. Shame we don’t have a cloak like the jumpers though."  
"What was that?"  
"You were stood right there Doc, your hearing going?"  
"Don’t be an ass! A cloak? I could do that! I need to talk to Radek!"

And with that Rodney left. John landed as close as he could to the Athosian settlement and everyone worked together to get them and their things on the City. Rodney and Radek spent most of that time in the Control room, hands waving and mouths going 90 miles an hour as everyone else in the room watched in stunned silence as they finished each others sentences and seemed to read each others minds as often as not, but it didn’t take them long to figure out how they could turn the shield into a cloak, but unfortunately not both at the same time.

In just under two hours the Athosians and all their belongings had been transferred to Atlantis, the Genii had been contacted and Kolya had joined them with more of his men, all the people and things were settled for a possibly rough journey. In just over two hours John was back in the Chair room with Rodney and Ronan, taking Atlantis off the planet for the last time, the Wraith still just a blip on the sensors.

************ 

John aimed them towards the Milky Way and flew until they hit the edge of Pegasus, then pulled up in orbit of an uninhabited planet to reset the Gate and call Earth. Rodney was not happy, nor was he shy about sharing it.

"Have you heard the term 'vivisection'?"

Rodney had been getting louder and more graphic in an attempt to get John to take him seriously, because logic and pointing out that Teal'c had been kidnapped, or they tried at least, several times hadn't worked. They had finally reached the Command room and he was still planning on calling Earth, telling them everything, and letting them do what they wanted with him, Rodney couldn’t understand why. John had lost all colour when he mentioned vivisection and everyone else shouted at him for it with varying degrees of disbelief, except Radek, who completely agreed with him. John stopped and looked at him for the first time instead of trying to ignore him. Rodney sighed, he hated the way he had had to do it but he would finally get an honest and serious response from John.

"Yes, Rodney, I have, but what choice do I have? I either tell them or I don’t go back, there is no other choice, because Weir isn't going to sit on this, she wont even give me enough time to run and hide! And what would be the point if she did? I would still lose everything! I would loose you and Ronan and Atlantis and the whole Pack! I can't stay here for the same reason. So what else can I do? Please, what do I do?"

Rodney couldn’t stand the pleading tone in Johns voice at the end, he rushed forward and pulled him into his arms, hugging him tight and pulling his head down into his neck where he knew John could smell him best.

"We can stay here John, we can stay."  
"Can't. Pack to big, everyone. Can't leave them, abandon them, hurts too much to be abandoned."  
"Oh baby, everyone knows you would never abandon them if you had a choice. You me and Ronan, we can go now, come back once they bring Atlantis back."  
"Can't leave Lantis and Tia, they wont go without me. Can't strand everyone here. Ford and others have family that don’t know what's happened to them. I have to take them back, I can't abandon them."  
"We don’t have to tell anyone though. Even if Weir tries, who's going to believe her? Everyone knows werewolves aren't real."  
"Lycan. And you know I can't lie for shit if they ask me out right"  
"Weir could have accident?"  
"Radek!!! I can't believe you just said that!"  
"What? Is big city, easy to get lost, trip, fall out window, many tragic accidents happen in the home!"

John couldn’t help snorting as he tried to hold back the laughter, he knew it was wrong on a human level but if a Pack leader went insane they would have to be taken care of, it was just a fact of life. Apparently the other Tau'ri didn’t see it that way, though the Pegasus natives were all nodding along in agreement. Rodney looked at all of them in shock for a moment before smirking evilly.

"Much as that does have an appeal, I'm pretty sure its not actually the best way to deal with the situation. Assassination is not something you want on your resume, and if it's already there I don’t want to know about it! Now, I don’t think we need to tell them everything right away, do we? Tell them we have Atlantis and we're bringing her home, that should be enough to keep them from asking any uncomfortable questions for a while. When we actually get back to Earth we can talk to Hammond and O'Neill, I know they don’t like me much but they are good men, they both take loyalty as seriously as you do John, if you ca tell them what has happened here first before they find out about the furry bits you'll be fine, you just have to get to them before anyone gets to Weir."  
"Right, so can we send them some of the files?"

Bates was now close enough o hear what they were saying and looked at them a little worried.

"Um, we already sent them everything Sir, that was the last thing Weir did yesterday before she disappeared into her quarters. We used the Compression thingy from Dr McKay's files and they just sent everything we had produced then as much of the Ancient Database as they could get through before it shut down, sorry I didn’t specify earlier Sir."

Everyone stared at Bates as he cringed before he gathered his self and straightened his back, staring straight ahead and obviously not happy to have to point out the genuine miscommunication. John had paled again and Rodney wondered if he had enough blood left in his head to stay upright, but he managed to pull through and remain on his feet.

"What did Weir tell them about me?"  
"She wrote a full AAR about the Genii situation Sir, then she wrote up reports on you and the Doctors, she didn’t tell anyone, but Chuck sees everything, he sorts all the reports, so he told me about them. So me and the boys wrote our own reports, and the Doc made sure he gave a detailed report of exactly what he saw and heard when they bought the jumper back from the mainland, we were going to get Ms Emmagan and Lieutenant Ford to expand on theirs too, but then she sent everything back to Earth before you got back."  
"You and the boys?"  
"Yes Sir! We wouldn’t have survived this year without you and the Doc's, and lets face it, who didn’t have dreams of their very own wolf as a kid? We get all the benefits without any of the crap, literal or figurative. All of us would follow you through Hell Sir, and the Geeks aren't far off either."

John stood in silent shock, he knew the men didn’t mind him, knew they listened to him, but to have that kind of loyalty, that kind of faith, for the Marines to follow him, and tell him about it, was almost unheard of outside of the SGC and not common in it. Ronan was military, and though he didn’t know a lot about the particulars of Earth military he knew all about inter branch issues, so he understood what an honour it was for John and why he was so stunned by it. Rodney didn’t, so Ronan elbowed him in the side as he went to open his mouth, just in case, it was best nobody spoke until John had decided what he was going to say next, however long that took him. John finally said the only thing he could think of that would in any way express his gratitude, trust and loyalty for these men in turn.

"Oorah!"  
"Oorah!"

The Marine Corps battle cry went up throughout the Command centre, every Marine present joining in without hesitation. Bates smiled at John and saluted him, crisp and formal before standing at ease.

"Aim high Sir."  
"Right, well, that makes things easy, we don’t have a choice and I wont abandon my Pack and Atlantis, so we call them and see what they say, I've never left a man behind yet, despite orders, I'm not gonna start now in the wrong Galaxy! Chuck, dial her up, lets talk to Earth shall we, see if we can't butter up the Brass with the new toys."

John had plastered a bright grin across his face and slouched closer to Chuck, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world, all his usual walls and shields back in place, almost like the last year had never happened, except he leaned in to Rodney when he stood next to him, seeking all the comfort and strength he could get from his mate. Ronan shimmered into his fur and shook his clothes off before sitting at Johns other side, leaning in to him. Chuck smiled at them then dialled the Gate, almost instantly connecting with Earth. 

"Stargate Command, this is Atlantis, come in."  
"This is Stargate Command, please repeat?"  
"Walter?"  
"Chuck? We thought we'd lost you all!"  
"So did we! You should have seen the Charlie Foxtrot here yesterday! Or the last month really, man you are so glad you weren't here!"  
"Chuck?"  
"Sorry Sir."  
"Sergeant Harriman, Major Sheppard reporting from Atlantis, currently of Pegasus. Any chance I can speak to the General?"  
"Certainly Major, he's on his way. We are glad to hear from you though Sir, we thought after this long, then we got the data burst and Dr Weir made it sound inevitable, we've been doing everything we can to get something to you, some reinforcements, but we couldn’t get a lock when we dialled in half an hour ago, we thought you were gone."  
"We were, just from the planet, not dead, which we all preferred."  
"I'm sure. The General is here now Sir."  
"Major Sheppard?"  
"General Hammond Sir."  
"Where is Dr Weir Major?"  
"I couldn’t say Sir, last we checked there was a stable life sign in her quarters but Sergeant Bates didn’t want to force the door, and this is the first time I would have had the time since I got back, there was a bit of an issue with uninvited guests, so we left the planet."  
"We have a lot to discuss Major, a hell of a lot, but good job getting out of there. What is your current situation?"  
"We didn’t engage the enemy this time Sir, so you have the personnel list from the data burst, we have the Athosians on board and a few new friends too."  
"New friends Major?"  
"Yeah, you see, there was this thing, where the Genii were sent to take the City, but I kinda changed their minds for them so they decided they liked me, so Kolya leant us a few men to clear Tia when we found her."  
"Major, I have heard many AAR's in my time, I hope you wrote it down more coherently than you are trying to explain it now."  
"Yes Sir. Dr's McKay and Zelenka fixed the physical damage to Atlantis memory core that was stopping her from accessing her full memories, once they had finished she was able to give us co-ordinates to a manufacturing plant for ZPM's, so we went to see if we could get it up and running. The plant turned out to be a mobile Tower that can dock with Atlantis, she also has an AI, her name is Tia, we fixed her engines but the plant just needed raw materials, and she doesn’t just make ZPM's, she makes Drones and other things too. So Atlantis now has a full armoury, Tia has a full compliment of Drones and raw materials and we have plenty stored around Atlantis too, we also have thirty ZPM in storage and a full compliment in use, we can make as many as you need Sir, and the Drones too."  
"Repeat that slowly Major."  
"We have thirty spare, fully charged, brand spanking new and shiny ZPM's, and the facilities to make as many more as you want."  
"That's what I thought you said son, and Drones too?"  
"Yes Sir, unlimited Drones, we can make about thirty an hour, so if you find somewhere to store them you can have as many as you need for the Antarctica Chair. The ZPM's take 48 hours to make but we figure 27 is a good start for you and that still leaves us with a full back up compliment in case of emergency. We've been filling every spare space near the Drone bays with spares, so we have a hell of a lot to pass around."

There was a long silence and John wasn’t sure if he should be worrying or not, until General Hammond spoke again.

"We certainly have a lot to talk about Major, but you have my attention, well played. What are your plans now Major?"  
"We are sat at the edge of Pegasus, we would like to come back to Earth Sir, we have a lot to show you, and we could do with some more personnel, and we would like to introduce you to our new allies. Pegasus works very differently to the Milky Way Sir, SOP just doesn’t work here, we could do with some help adjusting."  
"Sounds like we all have a lot to discuss Major. How soon can you be home?"  
"We can be there in 24 hours Sir."  
"Forget it Sheppard, you are not flying for 24 hours straight! General Hammond, you can't let him fly straight through like that."  
"Dr McKay, you know as well as I do, as should Major Sheppard, I would not ask that of anyone outside of an absolute emergency. Major, thinking of your own health is not an indulgence, it is a necessity. I think a refresher course in priorities and the necessity there of is in order, it seems to be a running theme in your jacket son."  
"Yes Sir."

John couldn’t give any other response, so he kept it simple. General Hammond chuckled.

"Come on in from the cold son, bring our people home. Call us when you're closer to home, we can give you your final flight path. Good luck Atlantis, God speed."

Nobody missed the significance of 'how' the General worded that, anyone 'out in the cold' was generally considered rogue, so being invited back in that way was enough to let him know he would get a civil and warm welcome instead of cuffs and a cell with optional vivisection, and coming from a man like Hammond he knew he could trust it too. 

"Thank you Sir. Atlantis out."

Chuck cut the transmission and shut the Gate while the others looked at each other, not quite sure if they could actually celebrate yet, or if they should hold off a little longer. John looked at Rodney, who gave him a tiny smile, at Teyla who was looking curious but hopeful, then to Bates, who smiled and threw a perfect salute, every member of the military in the room following him. John looked around at the dozens of Marines that had put their lives in his hands and followed him without question, and saluted back.

"Semper Fi!"  
"Oorah!"

The dull roar they returned to him could have been intimidating, but it just made him smile.

************

Rodney smiled as he watched John sitting in the chair, a stupid grin on his face and his eyes closed as he piloted his 'baby' through the Milky Way back to Earth. The long trip through the void between the Galaxies had been terrifying, but now they were within the Milky Way Rodney and everyone else had relaxed, even if they ran out of power, not that they could at this point, or broke down, unless they blew up instantly, in which case none of them would know anything about it so they didn’t care, nothing could really be a problem, they were within reach of the SGC via Gate or ship, they were safe, and very nearly 'home'. Once they were within half an hour of Earth John stopped Atlantis, orbiting a barren planet so they could dial up Earth. 

"SGC this is Atlantis, we are half hour out and waiting for final clearance. Permission to land?"

John spoke quietly from the Chair as soon as the Gate engaged, speaking in his usual slow and quiet drawl, not even bothering to open his eyes, waiting patiently for a response.

"Atlantis, this is SGC, you're a lot earlier than we expected, General Hammond will be with you as soon as he can. The nearest body of water we can park you in is going to be Stansbury Bay, Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have a unit there already setting up for you. I've been told you might want to start thinking about a leave roster for you people Major, you all deserve a vacation."  
"Thank you SGC, we will touch down and be back in radio contact in approximately thirty minutes, Atlantis over."  
"Be safe Atlantis, SGC out."

The Gate shut down and John grinned again as Atlantis hurtled back into hyper drive almost seamlessly. 

Rodney couldn’t believe how serene John was while he was connected to Atlantis, it was like nothing could touch him, nothing could harm him or his darling city, and to be fair, anything short of a century under heavy siege probably couldn’t at this point, it was beautiful to see, and soon they would be back on Earth, and starting the rest of their lives.

 

Perfectus


End file.
